Manufacturing
Made in Washington: Marceau & Associates Pipe Organ Builders
The three-person staff at the Ballard-based manufacturer also maintains pipe organs for about 200 clients.
By Navid Baraty July 16, 2018
This article originally appeared in the July 2018 issue of Seattle magazine.
This story appears in the July 2018 issue, and is presented by Impact Washington. Click here for a free subscription.
Marceau & Associates Pipe Organ Builders started as a tuning and maintenance company in the Portland area in 1980. It branched into building new pipe organs in 1985 and found space in Ballard, where it creates new instruments and maintains and refurbishes existing ones for clients from California to Alaska.
Owner and tonal director Rene Marceau says the company, which has three employees, maintains pipe organs for about 200 clients and so far has been commissioned to build 40 new ones, the latest being for a Methodist church in Coeur dAlene, Idaho.
The large image shows the mouths and lips of the lower sections of metal pipes standing on a windchest. Above, from left, a console, a windchest and wooden pipes await refurbishment and/or reinstallation. Marceau believes the wooden pipes at right were built in the early 1920s by the Estey Organ Company of Brattleboro, Vermont.
Scroll through bonus photos from the shoot at Marceau & Associates Pipe Organ Builders below, or click through the slideshow above. See more Made in Washington photo galleries here.
