At the Lafayette, an Organ With a Long Way Home

A roller rink, a Greenwich Village apartment and a cinema beneath Carnegie Hall: these are chapters in the life of an instrument now at home in Suffern. The Lafayette Theatre's Wurlitzer brings its own story to the movies.

According to the New York Theatre Organ Society, which owns and maintains it, the organ began at Massachusetts' Lawler Theatre in 1931. After a stint at a roller rink, film historian Ben Hall bought it in 1968. Getting it into his duplex meant carrying the instrument's components up two flights of stairs.

It later played at Carnegie Hall Cinema before going into storage. Volunteers began installation work at the Lafayette in November 1990, and the organ first played there in December 1992. This was not the theatre's original instrument; the Lafayette had opened in 1924 with a different organ.

The building and instrument have separate pasts, joined by practical work. Here, preservation is something an audience can hear.

The theatre's current website still advertises organ performances alongside its film schedule. It also welcomes private-event inquiries. In a message to prospective employees, owner Ari Benmosche emphasizes the people greeting moviegoers, taking tickets and making popcorn, and the value of learning neighborhood customer service.

There is a useful connection between those everyday jobs and the volunteers' earlier work: both give the building a life beyond its architecture. At 97 Lafayette Avenue, the invitation is to use the theatre, not simply admire its age. Check the current schedule before visiting—and, when an organ performance is listed, consider making it part of the outing.