Steer & Turner [J.W. Steer]
Opus 211, 1885

While the fire started in the cellar underneath the organ, thankfully it was during a service and people were in the building to take quick action. The fire burned through the floor in front of the organ by the pulpit and was extinguished quickly, but the interior suffered major smoke damage. The Steer & Turner replaced a large one-manual and pedal Mason & Hamlin reed organ, played originally by the church's first organist, a teen-aged Sara Rosebush, in whose memory her children donated the Steer's 1930 Moeller replacement. The S&T was not damaged in the fire beyond accumulated soot, but was sold to make way for the new and larger instrument. Reading between the lines of the Newfane church's media pages, it would seem they have recently junked all but the Steer's facade and replaced the real organ with a planned-obsolescence fake.

The organ was NOT discarded after the fire. It turns-out that it was purchased used by First Baptist Church of Newfane, NY. and installed there by an unknown person or firm. The case, at least, is extant; and possibly the entire instrument, though no longer playable.

Updated through online information from Scot Huntington.

This entry describes an original installation of a new pipe organ.
Identified by Scot Huntington, using information found in factory and church records.
-- The town now known as Alfred was originally called Alfred Center during the 19th century, to differentiate it from the neighboring depot town of Alfred Station. The Steere & Turner was the first pipe organ installed in the 1853 wooden gothic revival building. It was installed front and center in a specially constructed alcove addition, and the stenciled pipe fence facade over walnut woodwork (5-7-5-7-5) was a "stock" facade for S&T during this period.

Just as worship services were beginning on "Thanksgiving Sabbath," November 1929, a fire broke out beneath the pulpit, heavily damaging the building interior. While the exterior of the organ appeared unscathed, the interior works suffered from water and intense heat damage. The organ was discarded, but the historic church building was restored.

In 1930, a three-manual M.P. Moller (op. 5775) was given to the church as a memorial, and the instrument was installed in the alcove formerly occupied by the S&T, the area having been enlarged and converted into two chambers.