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Street Organ Museum – Draaiorgelmuseum
Kuppersweg 3
2031 EA Haarlem
Tel: 023-5262500
The Rotary Organ Museum in Haarlem is managed by the Foundation The Kunkels Organ. The founders of this were already in charge of the great Marenghi / Carl Frei dance organ of the Kunkels firm in Roermond in 1958. They decided to restore it and to place it in a foundation in 1962 to keep it for the future. After more than 10 years of restoration, the organ became the pièce environment in the museum that opened its doors in 1969 in an old factory hall on the Werfstraat in Haarlem.
In the years that followed, more revolving organs could be bought into ownership or loan. The collection now consists of a large number of unique historical instruments.
In the late 1990s, the museum was threatened with closure and the valuable collection of instruments was doomed to disappear in storage. A protest march of permanent museum visitors, rotary enthusiasts and no less than 40 revolvers across Haarlem was the result.
The museum houses a collection of historical very interesting organs to see and hear, the oldest dating from 1900. There are organs that are made for the fairground, for use in a dance hall or cafe and of course the street variety, many of which still operate on the streets of Holland. It is interesting to compare the different sounds of these types of organs.
The Dutch street organ culture is unique to the Netherlands and is nowhere else in the world.
