Olympic Organ Builders

Olympic Organ Builders was an importer and custom fabricator of mechanical action (‘tracker’) pipe organs in Seattle, Washington from 1962 through the 1970s. The company built approximately 15 custom mechanical-action ('tracker') pipe organs for churches and schools located the Puget Sound and Eugene Oregon in the period from 1967 through 1970.

The company was an informal partnership formed in 1962 of David P Dahl and Glenn D White Jr to import and install organs from Detlef Kleuker and Werner Bosch (both in Germany). David designed the stop lists and Glenn did the mechanical installation and final voicing and tuning.

They were joined by James R (Jim) Ludden in 1967 as designer-builder. Their shop was located in the Fremont neighborhood of Seattle, in a building owned by Glenn’s father, that had been a heating and sheet metal shop. Some of the organs were built for these:

• St. Bernadette Church, Seattle, 1969

• University Unitarian, Seattle, 1968

• Ste Madeleine Sophie, Bellevue, WA

• St Stephen's, Longview

• University of Oregon, Eugene

• Ingraham High School, Seattle

The firm was written up in The Seattle Times 1 June 1969. Some of the photographs from this article are on the right.