Local Business Owner Displays Unique Entertainment Piece

by Nathan Lasher

Not content with a jukebox or radio, Howard Gordon, Owner of “I Buy Gold” located at 204 Market Street in Kittanning, has recently placed a unique music-making entertainment piece in his shop.

The music box on wheels is actually a Dutch street organ from Amsterdam which was built in the 1920s. Gordon’s father purchased the machine from a fellow collector. “It came from around Saltsburg,” said Gordon. “The guy that bought it tore it apart and died. It was in his shed, and my dad bought it and put it back together. He rebuilt the inside; he re-covered the bellows. It’s air driven; there’s a big bellow with reservoirs.”

According to Gordon, the organ contains over 100 different pipes along with two drums that play book music. “It operates just like a player piano,” he said. There are usually ten songs on each book, and Gordon has ten books for that particular machine.

“It was bought in 1971, and it came to this country, but shortly afterwards Amsterdam banned exporting their machines because Americans were coming over, buying them all up, and bringing them over here,” said Gordon. “So, they were worried about a lot of their main industry.”

Some of the organ has been repainted, and a cart with wheels was also added in order to make the machine easily movable. It also has the name H. Mooij painted onto the front. “That’s the guy that actually built the machine in Amsterdam,” said Gordon. “In fact, Dad was over there a few years ago, and he got the phone book out and there were three guys there by that name. When he came home, he tried to locate him, but none of them knew anything about it.”

As one might guess from walking into his store, Gordon knows quite a bit about collectibles. “Dad and I both collect antiques,” he said. “I collect a million things, and he does too. This is more his area than mine. We also have music boxes; the kind that play a big steel record. Some of them play a steel disc. You wind them up, and they operate off of a spring. It’s more his hobby than it is mine, but I just thought it would be cool here for people to look at.

“Dad belongs to a Music Box Society. They have rallies; he’s got the ones in PA and Ohio where they’ll get a park like Kittanning Riverfront Park and they’ll lay out a map and set them far enough apart that you walk from machine to machine and the guy plays it for you, then you walk down out of ear shot and you listen to the next one. People enjoy it; I’m not that big into it, but the guys that like it really enjoy it. I’ve seen machines like this that are the size of a tractor trailer. There are all different sizes.”

Gordon’s father is actually asking $7,500 for the machine if there are any interested buyers. “That’s a pretty fair price, but we really didn’t expect to sell it here,” said Gordon. “It’s pretty much just here to show people. It attracts attention.”

Anyone interested in taking a look at, or even having a listen to, Gordon’s Dutch street organ can stop by his “I Buy Gold” store. He’s also planning on rolling it out the door for Kittanning’s Folk Festival. “Anytime people come in and want to hear it, I’ll play it two or three times,” he said. “People want to hear it, and they’ve never seen anything like it before, so I don’t mind cranking it. That’s what it’s here for.”

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