It’s rare for a musical instrument to become, quite literally, a tourist destination all of its own. But that’s precisely the pinnacle to which the world-famous Dickinson Theatre Organ has been raised. In fact, the organ has an entire Society built around it - the Dickinson Theatre Organ Society. What could make a single instrument so important? It’s because in the hands of a virtuoso musician, the massive organ is transformed into an amazing audio time machine that can transport you back to the age of silent movies or the big band era or how about the first time you took your honey to a baseball game!

The organ was originally installed at the legendary Boyd Theatre in Philadelphia, where a live feature at every performance was the playing of the Boyd's grand organ. Built by the Chicago firm of the W.W. Kimball Company, it featured 19 ranks (sets) of pipes and a three-manual, horseshoe-style console so the organist could reach all the "stops" (an organ "stop" admits pressurized air to a specific set of pipes - the more stops the greater variety of sounds available to the organist). Unfortunately, the Boyd organ was used for only a short time until "talkies" transformed the movie business, and the organ went silent for decades.

But in the late 60s Robert Dilworth, a member of the faculty of the John Dickinson High School, near Stanton, Delaware, began negotiating with Walter Froehlich of the RKO-Stanley Warner Corporation (successors to the original owners of the Boyd Theatre) about the possibility of acquiring a pipe organ from instruments still installed but unused in RKO theatres. Encouraged by school administrators, Mr. Dilworth purchased the organ in 1969 and moved it to Dickinson.

And that, as they play, was “…the Start of Something Big”! The Boyd Kimball pipe organ has become the world-famous Dickinson Theatre Organ with a full 66 ranks of pipes – more than three times the size of the installation in Philadelphia. Thanks to the Dickinson Organ Society audiences can be transported back “to those thrilling days of yesteryear” again and again when they purchase a subscription the Society’s annual concert series at the Dickinson high school auditorium. All of the performances are on Saturday evening.

Here's the good news, you can still catch the last two concerts of the season on June 12 and July 17 at 7:00 pm. Check out the short video (below) of internationally-acclaimed organist, Lew Williams, who will be performing at Dickinson on June 12.

In fact, why not make a weekend of it IN WilmINgton. One of most popular full-service hotels in the region, the Christiana Hilton, is just 8 minutes from Dickinson Auditorium and it's right down the street from Delaware Park Slots & Casino. In addition, both the Delaware Art Museum and the Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts in downtown Wilmington are completely FREE on Sunday! And this summer you can save up to $360 a couple by purchasing a Treasure Trail Passport to visit all 10 of the world-class museums and public gardens in the Brandywine Valley!

For more information about Delaware’s hotels, restaurants and attractions, take a look at some of the other articles by the Wilmington Tourism Examiner.