Hook & Hastings Opus 1222 was built in Boston in 1884 for the Clarkson family of Potsdam, New York, and installed that same year as the original organ for Zion Episcopal Church’s new 1883 building in Colton, New York. It is a two-manual, seven-rank mechanical-action tracker organ with about 400 pipes and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places with the church.

The organ was originally winded by hand-pumped bellows, and carvings from 1886 can still be seen in the woodwork. In 1931, a Spencer Steel Orgoblo electric blower was installed to replace manual pumping, while the original bellows were adapted into weighted reservoirs.

In 1973, the organ was restored by A. Richard Strauss of Ithaca, New York. That work included cleaning the pipes, repairing the action, and re-leathering components. The organ was then rededicated in honor of longtime organist Myrtle Smith Bullis, who served from 1931 to 1963.

Today, Opus 1222 remains in playing condition and retains its original pipework, case, action, and distinctive late-Victorian voicing. It continues to serve the church’s liturgy with the clear, responsive touch for which tracker organs are known.