Benicia Built Pipe Organ Headed to Fordham University

The University Church at Fordham University’s Rose Hill campus is getting a new organ that is currently being built at the facility on Industrial Way in the Benicia Industrial Park. 

Schoenstein & Co. has been a Bay Area fixture for 135 years and has built organs for churches throughout the country and internationally.  The company’s next big project is in London, England.

According to Fordham Notes, installation of the new organ will begin in August and is expected to be complete in October.

“Every organ is custom made for the church where it is going,” said Jack Bethards, the company president.  “We build it here in Benicia, test it here, then take the organ apart and ship it.  Then our people go and install it.”

The project is being funded by Fordham alumni and according to the Inside Fordham news site, the project will cost $2 million.  The Rose Hill campus where the University Church is located is in the Bronx, NY adjacent to the New York Botanical Gardens.

Schoenstein & Co. does complete renovations of existing organs as well as building and installing new organs.  “We just completed renovation of the Grace Cathedral organ in San Francisco,” said Bethards.

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