Spreckels Organ Pavilion

This guide to the Spreckels Organ Pavilion in San Diego's Balboa Park centers on the odd 1914 engineering problem behind the gilded pipes facing you: building a pipe organ tough enough to survive outdoors, with no electricity involved at all. You'll hear about Harrison Albright, a self-taught architect hired by businessman John D Spreckels and his brother Adolph, and the fix Albright worked out for a structure with no other outdoor organ on earth to copy. The guide also revisits opening night, when an orchestra and a two hundred fifty voice choir shared the stage with the instrument itself.