{"id":311871,"date":"2026-05-12T11:49:24","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T11:49:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/311871\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T11:49:24","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T11:49:24","slug":"ppacs-historic-organ-off-to-california-for-complete-restoration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/311871\/","title":{"rendered":"PPAC\u2019s historic organ off to California for complete restoration"},"content":{"rendered":"

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) \u2014 The\u00a0Providence Performing Arts Center<\/a>\u2018s historic \u201cMighty Wurlitzer\u201d organ is officially on the move.<\/p>\n

PPAC\u2019s President and CEO Alan Chille announced last month that the organ will be completely restored over a two-year period by\u00a0Herman Organ Company<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Chille said the organ\u2019s restoration will begin this summer and wrap up sometime in 2028. He expects the organ to be back just in time for PPAC\u2019s 100th anniversary.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s such a satisfying organ to play,\u201d PPAC\u2019s house organist Peter Krasinski said. \u201cThere\u2019s no digital interference. The organ plays when you press the keys. It\u2019s very much connected to the player.\u201d<\/p>\n

RELATED: PPAC\u2019s historic organ to undergo complete restoration <\/a><\/p>\n

The organ, which is one of three five-manual Wurlitzers ever built, was removed from the theater Monday afternoon. It is now on its way to Herman Organ Company\u2019s headquarters in California to begin the restoration process.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis organ, when it goes back in, will have nothing digital in it,\u201d Herman Organ Company President Mark Herman said. \u201cIt will work just as it did when it was new in 1927.\u201d<\/p>\n

The organ\u2019s restoration will cost approximately $1.4 million, according to Chille. He said the theater was awarded $650,000 through a\u00a0Save America\u2019s Treasures<\/a>\u00a0grant to cover roughly half of the cost.<\/p>\n

The grant requires the theater to raise a matching amount through donations. Those interested in donating can do so\u00a0online<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WPRI.com. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) \u2014 The\u00a0Providence Performing Arts Center\u2018s historic \u201cMighty Wurlitzer\u201d organ is officially on the move. PPAC\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":311872,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[130708,7,9,8,130712,130709,130711,130707,10153,130710],"class_list":["post-311871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-alan-chille","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-mighty-wurlitzer","tag-organ-company","tag-ppac","tag-providence-performing-arts-center","tag-restoration","tag-wpri"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=311871"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311871\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/311872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=311871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=311871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=311871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}