Balcom and Vaughan Pipe Organs Inc. is the oldest pipe organ builder in the greater northwest. The company was founded in 1921 by C.M “Sandy” Balcom, who had previously worked for another organ builder, Sherman, Clay & Co. At the end of the silent film era, Balcom and Vaughan began to focus more on building or altering church instruments. Organs bearing Balcom's design influence were often small, unit organs, sometimes consisting of only three manuals. These projects commonly contained an amount of old pipe work or components from (redundant or altered instruments. As tastes began to lean toward European-based designs, Eugene “Gene” Nye was influential in revisioning Balcom and Vaughan instruments of the 1960s to respond to those tastes.