Unknown Builder
1962

This entry decribes the first substantial alteration to the original instrument, completed in 1962. The updating of the instrument, primarily with new mixtures and principal choruses, was developed and overseen by Cathedral Organist Charles Courboin. An article in "The American Organist", November, 1962, attributed the work to a local technician named Eric Sexton, and his "generosity", suggesting the work was done on an insufficient budget. The article does not specify whether the material was actually new, or recycled. Another article circulated two decades later as a fund-raising appeal, described the failing condition of the organ, noting specifically, the amateurish manner in which the additions were placed anywhere there was room with sub-standard wiring and causing challenging access for servicing and tuning. In 1978, under the tenure of Cathedral Organist John Grady, chorus reed ranks were either replaced or rebuilt in the french style by NYC reed voicer Jack Steinkampf, and many flue ranks were loudened by an unidentified NYC technician. The intensely loud Trompette-en-chamade on 33" pressure was also added at this time. The organ was substantially enlarged and altered again in 1993 into an essentially new organ with old parts, at which time the original console was ordered destroyed by the resident priest and replaced with two large five-manual drawknob consoles by Robert Turner.