During 4 generations, the Hooghuys family was active in the field of church or mechanical organ building. In the following short history, it isn’t possible to give all the details about this family, since a book could be filled with those.

The family and factory.

  The start: church organ building.

As far as can be traced, the musical side of the Hooghuys family started with Gerrit Simon Hooghuys being baptized at Wormer (NL) on January 1st 1754; there is no official confirmation on the date of his birth. In 1806, Gerrit moved from Middelburg (NL) to Brugge (B), where he notified in a local newspaper the following (in translation):

Whom Gerrit Simon learned the trade of organbuilding from, is unknown, perhaps from his father. He died on January 24th 1813.

Simon Gerard Hooghuys, the eldest son of Gerrit Simon, was born at Middelburg on February 14th 1780 and died at Brugge on October 21st 1853.

Louis Benoit Hooghuys, third son of Simon Gerard, was born at Brugge on March 21st 1822. Here we certainly meet the greatest church organ building of this family. In 1854 already, he was established as organbuilder. His work shows both great craftmanship and knowledge: his organ building skills rested upon the gradual simplification of the late Baroque organ to an early Romantic instrument. Examination on the dispositions of his instruments indicates that for Louis Benoit Hooghuys, the merge of soft timbre registers was more important than the contrast between loud expressive ones.

From church to mechanical organs:
the Manufacture d’orgues mécaniques Louis Hooghuys.

On May 14th 1856, the most famous member of the Hooghuys family was born: Louis François Hooghuys. Although he was a good craftsman concerning church organs (he learned a good deal from his father and he also worked for some time in the Anneessens firm at Geraardsbergen), he decided to switch to the building of mechanical barrel organs. So, in 1880, the Manufacture d’orgues mécaniques Louis Hooghuys was established – at the same time one of the oldest firms in this field in Belgium. At first, Louis François hired a workplace in the Mill Street but eventually, in 1882, he moved to the Place de la Station. The workmen were treated in a – for that time – very human way. During it’s most active period, the firm counted about 15 working people. Unfortunately, a lot of valuable factory documents have been lost, due to the fact that German soldiers were billeted in the building during the first World War (this loss makes it hard to say how many instruments Louis François Hooghuys built exactly). Remarkable in any way is that a lot of people who started building music instruments in the region of Geraardsbergen, made their first steps in the Hooghuys factory.

At first, the firm only built cylinder organs: no large ones have been preserved (only some pictures: these instruments often had large, life-size figures), but two or three smaller ones (33 keys) are still extant (one is in the possession of the Perlee family at Amsterdam (NL), another can be see at the Mechanical Music Museum & Bygones at Cotton (Stowmarket, GB); this last one has the name "Victor Hooghuys" on it, but was originally built by Louis François' factory; its case has been renewed (in multiplex ...) and it has a new barrel as well as an old one arranged by Edgard Georges Hooghuys)). The first book organ by Hooghuys was delivered in (ca.) 1900. This instrument was quite awkward, since it was originally a cylinder-organ which had been adapted to play book music all along cylinder music (a double mechanism). From that time on, the Hooghuys family built several kinds of book organs: smaller fair organs, ‘normal’ fair organs and dance organs (see About the organs). The Hooghuys firm not only built new organs, but also repaired/restored other organs (e.g. Bruder, Gavioli, ...).    

In comparison to other organbuilders, Hooghuys built relatively few organs. The construction of a new instrument was only commenced after intensive meetings with the customers for their requirements, and what Louis Hooghuys was prepared to build, along with an advanced payment on the instrument: this might explain why there are relatively few Hooghuys organs left. On the other hand, Hooghuys quickly gained a good reputation outside Belgium: so he delivered some instruments (on command) to the famous Chiappa & Sons (London, GB). It might be interesting to mention that the person responsible for the assembly of the instruments in London was Julius Bartholomeus Vander Beken, who afterwards left the Hooghuys firm to start building organs himself at Edingen (Enghien, B); but as it appears, only few organs by Vander Beken are left (but it is probable that he didn’t build a lot of instruments; the only larger Vander Beken organ in Belgium is owned by Mr.Ghysels at Schaarbeek, near Brussels, B).

There was never any question of mass production in the company: every part of the organ was made by hand, with no two organs ever being the same. Louis Hooghuys was constantly searching for a better combination and disposition of the pipework; the result of these efforts was that every instrument was a masterpiece in its own right.

As most organ building firms, the Hooghuys company also provided cardboard music for their organs. In the field of notating and pinning the music cylinders (barrels) and – later on – the cutting of cardboard music books, Edgard Georges Hooghuys (1873-1958), Louis’ youngest brother, has done remarkable work. Some excellent examples of his work can be heard on the 70-key dance organ of Mr.Ted Bowman (Clophill, GB) and on the 90-key dance organ of the museum at Utrecht (NL). Besides Edgard Georges, also Louis François’ two other brothers were active in the factory: François Louis (1858-?) was occupied with the pipework while Edouard Joseph (1862-1925) did the pneumatic parts of the organs. Victor Valère Hooghuys (1904-1978), the son of Edgard Georges, also worked in his uncle’s factory (among doing other things, he cut organ books).

The end of the Hooghuys firm.

The Hooghuys works were running to full capacity until the 1914-18-war; afterwards, the production was restricted. The organs built before World War I were built up to a standard, but post-war instruments had to be built down to a price. After 1918, in order to keep the factory going, also gramophones and records (e.g. from the Zonophone label) were sold.

Louis François Hooghuys died on November 16th 1924. After his death, the business may be considered as good as finished. The most inportant cause for this was the discord between his two eldest sons: Charles François (1878-1951) and Edmond François (1882-1963).

Charles François Hooghuys, born at Geraardsbergen on April 15th 1878, was the eldest one, but was not so talented as Edmond both on craftmanship and music. For that reason, and because Louis François did better get on with Edmond, Louis François considered the latter as his successor – something Charles couldn’t stand. Edmond kept on restoring and tuning organs untill his death in 1963, while Charles stopped all activities at latest in 1939 (probably earlier). Although there are some Hooghuys organs with the name Ch.Hooghuys on it, it should be mentioned that Charles François never built a completely new organ himself, but only finished some work that was left when his father died and maintained some organs.

At the time of Louis’ death, two organs were still to be completed: the LH650 (84-key) and LH670 (58-key), now both in the possession of Jasper Sanfilippo. The LH650 was actually ready, apart from the façade; who made this façade, is unknown. The LH670 was dismantled and stored in packing cases when Charles bought it (together with other things form his father’s workshop) at the auction of Louis François’ inheritance. Neither this organ had any façade yet and still no trombones. Charles completed the organ with German trombones and a Wellershaus façade (later on, Emile Baude from Gent (B) gave the organ a Bruder façade).

Charles also assembled a 70-key organ: the CH660 of Teddy Reed (Amersham, GB), with apart from the (German) windchest and trombones all original Hooghuys parts. Charles also provided some organs with a Hooghuys keyframe: the CH655 (51-key, originally a Ruth), the CH665 (51-key, builder unknown), the CH675 (78-key, built by Pierre Eich, no longer extant) and the CH680 (73-key, originally a Wellershaus).

After the death of Louis, Charles bought half of the factory building at the Place de la Station (the other part was sold to a furniture manufacturer). In that house, he opened a café (for the brewery “Zeeberg” from Aalst) with a Hooghuys dance organ (the LH620, 71-key, now in the possession of Bill Nunn), which he – as it appears – sold to a showman in 1931. In 1938 Charles sold his house and workshop to the brewerey mentioned above but it was only in 1940 that he moved to another address (Kloosterstreet 24), while his only son Romain Charles took over the café.

Most people who have a Hooghuys organ, will undoubtedly know Romain Charles Hooghuys. He was born in Geraardsbergen on  July 22nd 1901. A lot of music patterns by Romain Charles have been preserved, dating from 1921 to 1931, which means that he has cut organ books for about eleven years. After that time he started a commerce in beer for the same brewery ("Zeeberg") his father kept the café mentioned above. Probably he had this business until  the outbreak of World War II, when he was drafted. It appears that around 1930, he also acted as a pianist in the local jazz-band “The Berkeley Boys” for a short time.

In 1944, he left Geraardsbergen (Grammont) for some reason, and went to live in Galmaarden (B). There he opened a shop for newspapers, magazines, stationery and sweets. He also had a commerce in coffee for a certain time, and was occasionally organist in the local church . In 1951, after his father’s death, he moved back to Geraardsbergen with his family to live with his mother in the Kloosterstreet 12. Two years later, in 1953, he moved to the Belgian coast; successively in Zuienkerke, Lissewege, Wenduine, Zeebrugge and Brugge.

It was at Lissewege in about 1955 that he purchased the LH615 (83-key), which is now in the museum at Utrecht (NL), and from then on (say sporadically), he started cutting cardboard music again.

In the early sixties, he bought the LH507 (93 key); a dance organ with the Gavioli G4 scale (the Hooghuys firm built several organs with this scale). Unfortunately, he dismantled that organ to have spare parts. In November 1963, he bought the 72-key LH518, better known as the “Senior”, and from 1968 on, he played that organ on a folkloristic market in Knokke-Heist (B) every year on Thursday afternoon during summer; it was from that time on that he started fulltime cutting organ books again.

Around 1965, he bought (at a comparatively low price) the LH605 (97-key), which he called the “Condor”, and in October 1971, he purchased the LH552 (73-key), which is now in the possession of Marc Hooghuys (now it is named “Albatros”).

Romain Charles kept on arranging music for his organs until 1978, when he moved to Brugge, near the Boudewijnpark (a theme park). There he made may be another ten books, but in about 1985, when his wife’s health began to fail, he stopped cutting books for ever. On December 15th 1989, he died after being severely injured in an accident. His wife died on the day of his funeral.

Fortunately, Romain Charles has a worthy successor in his son, Marc Herwig Hooghuys, who is actually the last member of the Hooghuys family who engages himself in the world of mechanical organs. In this field, he does more than an excellent job. Apart from maintaining other Hooghuys organs, he also is working on the restoration of his own Hooghuys organ, the above mentioned 73-key “Albatros”.