The organ in the Unitarian Church, New Bedford, Mass., was built by Messrs. E. and G. G. Hook, of Boston. The opening exhibition took place in the church on Friday evening, June 13th, 1862. Mr. A. T. Thorup, the organist of the church, Messrs. Wilcox and J. W Hervey played, and Miss H. E. Booth and. the choir sang. Mr. Thorup prepared the specification. The manuals· of this organ were about the first made in this country to overhang each other, which method was then announced as 'on a new plan.' This organ has three manuals, each of a compass of 56 notes, from CC to gin alt., and pedal bass compass of 27 notes, from CCC-tenor d. The case, of gothic architecture, is of solid chestnut, and the front pipes are of burnished tin. It has 37 sounding stops and 2,273 pipes, which are as follows...[see stoplist tab]
-- "The Organ," New York Weekly Review of Music, Drama, Literature, Fine Arts, and Society 22:2 (Sat., January 7, 1871).

"...the third instrument, E. & G. G. Hook Op. 314, was installed in the rear gallery. This instrument was at the time the largest organ in New Bedford, and it was this organ that Ralph Waldo Emerson heard when he served as interim minister of the church 1866-7. In 1874, architect William Ralph Emerson was engaged to "Victorianize" the church, and he recommended that the organ be moved to the front near the pulpit; the organ was indeed moved."
-- 2005 OHS Handbook

Updated through online information from Bruce Gardzina. -- Rebuilt in 1891 by Hutchings. Incorporated into 1907 Hutchings-Votey. Replaced by 1966 Flentrop. Destroyed/dispersed (Laws Jr.)

Identified from company publications as edited and expanded in The Hook Opus List 1829-1935, ed. William T. Van Pelt (Organ Historical Society, 1991).