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Dr. Paul M. Abernethy Sr has been involved with Theater Pipe organs for many years. Some of you may remember him as a past president of the ATOS from 1972
to 1974. He has been and still is active in the ATOS and our local PTOS Chapter. The first Abernethy instrument was a 2 manual 5 rank WurlTzer and it was located in the basement of the Abernethy residence. In 1969,
his "Cathedral of Music" was built to house a 2/8 Robert Morton that had been installed in the National Theater, Durham, NC. The present 3/12 Robert Morton organ is the latest saga of his Theater Organ
accomplishments.
The "Abernethy Cathedral" was especially built for Dr. Abernethy as an organ hall. Twenty feet wide and sixty feet long, the ceiling is an open
"A" frame design using sheetrock and wood paneling. The Cathedral has two chambers. Each is ten by fifteen feet and sixteen feet high. It is also equipped with a small projection booth and movie screen for
screening silent movies. A partition or "baffle" was constructed in front of the two chamber openings. Such a design kept the shutters and frames from being cut to a smaller size and provided a
"mixing chamber" to deflect and reduce the volume of sound coming from an instrument designed to fill a theatre. The blower is located in an attached building. A rotary converter provides 3 phase power to
the blower.
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