FORMER
2/9 Marr & Colton |
Welch Residence
Bismarck, North Dakota

The Charles L. Welch Residence Marr & Colton Organ began life as a 2/5 organ installed by the Marr & Colton company in the Bismarck Theatre. As the Marr & Colton Company is not known to have ever compiled a complete opus list, the installation date of this instrument is not known, but can be assumed to have be sometime in the 1920s.

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At some point, probably in the 1950s, the organ was purchased from the theatre by Reinhold "Reiny" Delzer, who installed in his living room and enlarged it to a 2/6.

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Updo the installation of the 4/20 Publix 1 Wurlitzer in Mr. Delzer's house, the Marr & Colton was moved across the street and installed in 1961 in the Charles "Chuck" & Fran Welch residence by Gerhard Ephart of Minneapolis, MN. Here, it would remain for the next 60 years and beyond and like the Delzer Wurlitzer, was a feature instrument of the 1963 American Theatre Organ Enthusiasts national convention. Chuck Welch died in 2008 at the age of 92 and Fran Welch died in 2007 at the age of 93.

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The organ was last played in ca. 1990 until November, 2023, when members of the Red River Theatre Organ Society visited it to play and document it. One of the nine ranks, namely the Orchestral Oboe (manufactured by Dennison), was purchased by the RRTOS and added to the 3/12 Wurlitzer at A Center for the Arts in Fergus Falls, MN.

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See the gallery photos below for the instrument specification.