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The
Guelph Historical Society Publications - VOL. X, No.2 - 1970
"THE BELL ORGAN COMPANY
"
By
Roberta Gillbank
William Bell, the founder of
the Bell Organ Company, was born in Scotland in 1832. After working in
Toronto and in Minnesota for several years as a carpenter and contractor,
he settled in Guelph in 1865, and, with his brother Robert, established
the Bell Organ Company.
Their first product was a
melodeon, a rather bulky and primitive affair which took three men working
industriously for a week to produce. It was beautifully finished and
correspondingly expensive. The Bell Company was one of the first to work
on the organ, and by 1873 was producing a small cabinet model much like
our modern electric ones in size. Proudly the company announced the prize
medal from the Provincial Exhibition for their “Organette, containing
Scribner's Patent Qualifying Tubes". The organ pictured in the
advertisements of 1886 was very carved and decorated, with painted flowers
in small panels here and there. By 1899 the organ had become quite like
the design for the first pianos, still ornate, with the music supports
folding out when the keyboard was open. 
The organs were being shown
and winning acclaim all over the world, being sold as far away as New
Zealand and Australia, and to the Empress Frederick, the King of Italy,
the King of Spain and even to the Sultan of Turkey. The Company received
the gold medal at the Liverpool Exhibition. A report of the Colonial
Exhibition in London, 1886, concedes that “The Bell Organ display was
the most prominent in their line".
"H.R.H. the Prince of
Wales personally congratulated them on having the most handsome exhibit;
the stand itself, a work of art in design and fitting, having been erected
at a cost, it is said, of six hundred pounds. The woodwork is enameled
white with real gold, handsomely carved, and the drapery is silk plush and
Indian muslin. The Marquis of Lorne and H.R.H. the Princess Louise, after
thoroughly testing the instruments made and exhibited by the different
manufacturers, decided to buy one of the "Illuminated Pipe Top Bell
Organs". This sale was followed by others - to the right Honorable
Sir Robert Bourke, Governor of Madras, India. . . in the Citadel of Quebec
a Bell Organ graces the drawing room of the Marquis of Lansdowne, and in
far distant Victoria, B.C., Lady Douglas selected a Bell Organ for her
use."
The Bell Company had grown to
be one of the largest and most prosperous businesses in Canada by 1881.
Their factories were in the block from Wyndham S. to the present priory
square, between Macdonnell and Carden streets, on either side of the Royal
Hotel, all facing onto the Market Square. There was a vegetable market
where the present C.N. station is, and the Grand Trunk depot was farther
east. The railway divided the Bell establishment - the factories on the
north, the yards on the other side.
Factory #1 was to the west of
the Hotel, and of four storeys, the lower three stone, with the top of
brick. A plan of the factories show how they were divided into sections.
Woodworking machinery was on the first floor, Staining and Finishing on
one part of the second, with Polishing and Varnishing on the third.
Veneering was on the second, along with cabinet making there and on the
third. At that time, 1889, Piano making was on the fourth.
The Royal Hotel was three
storeys, with storage, the stables and the Stable yard opening on
Macdonnell, and the archway was the carriage passage to the front door.
The bell #2 factory was next,
also of three storeys. Dressing the lumber was done in the basement,
bellow making on the first, trimming on the second, and 'action making' on
the third. Both factories were heated by steam, the fuel being waste
lumber mostly. Lighting was with gas, but electricity was installed in
1893. 250 Hands were employed in Number 1, and 150 in No.2. Packing rooms,
shavings bins, coal houses, oil sheds, boilers, water tanks and storage
were in appropriate places. The core of the establishment, the office, was
in the east corner overlooking the Market Square, the river, and their
lumber yards and kilns.
The Bell lumber yards covered
considerable area on the other side of the tracks. Two large drying kilns,
special stocks of lumber, the Ice house, and the stables and their sheds
were scattered between Neeve St. and the Guelph Mills on the river.
The designs of the organs and
pianos kept pace with the furniture styles of the day, and by the early
1920's, the bell company had a severely plain 'new art' piano.
About this time the player
piano was being developed and the Bell Player-Pianos and Electric
Reproducing Pianos were among the best. Bell had been one of the first to
manufacture a self-playing instrument in Canada. Later the Company
specialized in Piano Benches to replace the older piano stool which had
been a fascination to children who loved to twirl the fringed top. About
1925 the company introduced a phonograph.
Then
for two or three decades organs, pianos, melodeons and phonographs were
all set aside in favor of the radio. It has been only in these recent days
when self-expression and individuality have come into their own that these
instruments with their lovely rosewood, ebony, walnut - and fumed oak -
cases have returned as antiques, and as musical instruments.
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