The Smith Orchestral Organ Co., Inc., was established in 1912 at 492 Schenck Street by Frederick W. Smith.  He produced "The Smith Orchestral Organ."   Frederick Smith was an organ builder in England when he met Robert Hope-Jones in 1892.  Hope-Jones and Smith combined forces at a shop in Birkenhead.  In 1903, Smith came to the United States.  In this country, he associated with a designer, Ernest M. Skinner. Hope-Jones described Smith as follows, "The man at the head of our building department is Mr. F. W. Smith.  There is not a more skilled or scientific organ builder in America.  Mr. Smith has been closely associated with me for many years."  Frederick Smith first conceived the horseshoe-shaped console arrangement of stop tabs in 1905.  In 1917, Smith combine with the J. P. Seeburg Company and they became known as Seeburg-Smith.  In 1922, Seeburg's interest was purchased by Mr. Harry Hogan and the operation was moved to Geneva, Illinois where the instruments became known as Geneva-Smith Unit Organs.  After a few years, Smith left this partnership and moved to California in November 1923 where he established the Smith Organ Company in Alameda, reassuming the original company name for the operation.  Some of the organs produced in Alameda by Smith were sold by the Leatherby Company of San Francisco and became known as Leatherby-Smith Organs.  Smith's son, Charles, joined the company in Alameda in 1924, and a partnership was created under the name, F. W. Smith and Son.  The operation continued there until the company ceased activity entirely in 1928.  Frederick Smith died in 1948.

The Smith organ construction practices remained constant over the years, although business relationships changed.  The chests were built with a side-mounted pneumatic which opened the pipe valve on the old Roosevelt chest pattern.  Small chests holding one rank were commonly used and three ranks was the maximum size built.  Organs for theatres were built with relay and chest primaries.  Those for churches were built without primaries.  The difference in price was about 10%.  Pipes were never manufactured by this firm.  Reed pipes were purchased from Gottfied and flues were obtained from Samuel Pierce (later known as Dennison) in Reading, Massachusetts.  Percussions were from Lyon & Healy, Deagan, and Kehler.  Smith's actual construction was focuesed on consoles, relays, chests, reservoirs, actions, and other appurtenances. A curious feature of Smith organs was that stop tabs were arranged by familiy--that is, Bourdon 16', Flute 8', Flute 4', Twelfth 2/23', Piccolo 2'--with strings or reeds following the same sequence, rather than traditional groupings that keep all 8' stops together, followed by 4' stops, etc.  About 1000 instruments were made and sold by Smith's various companies, and most were theatre organs.  Long after the manufacturing operations in California had ceased, Charles Smith rebuilt many organs in the San Francisco Bay area.  For many years, he continued to make switches, valves, pneumatics, and relay parts for Smith organs.

A Smith pit organ on a piano console