Relocated byOwner
1892

email from Scot Huntington, Oct 24, 2026:
It starts at the Duane mansion in Duanesburg because it was dispersed at a house auction there: Sold at auction ca. 1889 to Congregational church (later Presbyterian), Worcester, NY, moved by church members. Moved to a new adjacent building, Worcester NY in 1892 by church members.

Some time around 1880 the congregation sent a group to Duanesburg, about 40 miles distant, for the purpose of attending the auction of the contents of the Catherine Duane Livingston mansion (Featherstonehaugh) by her descendants, which included a fine chamber organ. Catherine died in 1852 with her property passing through her children and grandchildren. The church's intention was to bid on the organ with the purpose of purchasing it and bringing it home. We don't know what the final bid was, nor how many parties may have been bidding against them. It is believed that the organ may have originally been in a NYC residence, or it may have been original to this grand home, built ca. 1812. There is a photo of the organ, likely from the 1880s, showing the organ in-situ in the church, with its top pediment and carved decorations intact, making an already tall organ, grandly tall. The Worcester church was town down and replaced with a modern and less imposing Akron-style church in 1892. An early postcard of the organ in the new church without its top decorations is dated either 1903, 1908, or 1909. The postmark was incomplete making the exact date unclear. The pleated center screen was redone for the new location under a large window, apparently in a different color, and not nearly as nicely pleated. The organ remained in the Worcester church until it was replaced with an Estey two-manual electro-pneumatic organ, and the Jardine was either sold or given to the Presbyterian Church in Middlefield Center, about 12 miles northwest as the crow flies. The organ remained in Middlefield until that church closed in the late 1960s to become a residence, and Sidney Chase of Worcester rescued the organ and brought it to its shop. It remained there for several years before it was sold through the Organ Clearing House to a low-power classical music station in Seattle. It was on the market again by 1982 for an inflated price. It has moved four times since, most recently in 2022 when it was acquired by S.L. Huntington & Co. for relocation to another church in upstate New York, yet to be restored and installed as of this writing in 2026. Except for replacement of the Op. Diap. with a second-hand Gamba, either when it was moved to Middlefield or Seattle, the installation of an electric blower, slide tuners, and minor repairs, the organ is otherwise original. It is very likely George Jardine's oldest extant organ. With its moving history across nine homes, it is a miracle survival, and could have perished at any time.

Further research indicates this congregation was part of the Congregational denomination until 1917 when that association was disolved and the members joined the Presbyterian denomination. At the time the organ was first acquired, date unknown, the congregation was meeting in its first Congregational structure built in 1822 and remodeled in 1865. When the present ediface was built adjacent to it in 1892, the 1822 building was demolished and the parsonage erected on the same site. It is likely the organ was simply moved from one building to the next by church members. A close inspection of the 1909 postcard images reveals the Congregational Church caption. Church lore suggests the organ was acquired at some point mid-late 19th century at an auction of the contents of the Duane mansion-- thus the attribution to that residence as its first home.

Notes by Scot Huntington. -- Originally built for the Duane Mansion in Duanesburg, New York. At an unknown date late 19th century, the organ was moved here to the Presbyterian church in Worcester, New York, about 35 miles distant. The organ served here until it was replaced by a two-manual Estey in the 1930s, and the organ was moved again to the Presbyterian church in Middlefield Center, about 12 miles west.