In 1925, the Marr and Colton Company installed a 3/20 instrument in what became the Keeney Theatre. The organ was used daily to accompany the silent films until the advent of talkies in 1929. After that time, the organ was used only on rare occasions and was not kept in repair – the last record of its having been played was in 1941.
Then came the Flood of 1946, which floated the console out of the pit, and when it came back to rest on the elevator platform, it was upside down. It wasn’t until 1961 that a group of local organ enthusiasts including Lauren Peckham, Bob Oppenheim and David Teeter took on the monumental work of an organ restoration project. So much of the organ had been demolished in one way or the other that another 3/15 Marr and Colton organ was purchased from the Palace Theater in Jamestown, NY, and moved to Elmira. By 1963, the organ was in playable condition. Then came the Flood of 1972, which completely ruined the console, blowers in the basement, and the organ elevator lift motors, gears and other parts.
Nothing was done after the Flood of 1972 until 1976 when a concerted drive was undertaken to save the theater for use of a community and performing arts center – the Clemens Center. In March of 1977, Lauren, Joyce, David and Kent Peckham and David Teeter took on the restoration of the organ. During April of that year, the Center was able to purchase a four-manual Wurlitzer Theater Organ from our Lady of Victory Basilica in Lackawanna, NY. Working frantically right up to the last minute, the organ was played in October 1977 by David Peckham at the official grand opening of the Center, which starred Ella Fitzgerald.
In 2007-08 the Clemens Center undertook a major renovation project and after a thorough renovation to all its components, the theatre pipe organ premiered on October 27, 2013.