Keates-Geissler Pipe Organs Ltd.

Keates-Geissler Pipe Organs Ltd.

Keates-Geissler Pipe Organs Ltd (Keates Organ Company, Ltd until 1971). Established in 1945 in London, Ont, by Bert Keates (b 1909), to manufacture custom-built pipe organs. The company moved to Lucan, Ont, in 1950, became incorporated in 1951, and relocated in Acton, Ont, in 1961. Upon Keates' retirement, 31 Dec 1971, Dieter Geissler became president. A small firm with about 12 employees in 1990, Keates-Geissler has built about eight organs with electropneumatic action each year. A few tracker-action instruments also have been made. Aside from the metal pipes, keyboards, and other standard parts, the instruments have been built completely in the company's Acton shop. In Canada Keates organs have been installed in churches in Ancaster, Barrie, Brantford, Guelph, Hamilton, Kitchener, Ottawa, Richmond Hill, and Toronto, Ont, and in Vancouver. In the USA the company has built organs for Shades Mountain First Baptist Church, Birmingham, Ala; Dauphin Way Baptist Church, Mobile, Ala; and (their largest installation by 1991) at First Baptist Church, Jackson, Miss. There also is a Keates-Geissler organ at St James Parish Church, Barbados. The firm has rebuilt the organs of Hillhurst United Church, Calgary, and Grace Anglican Church, Brantford