Pipe Organ Database

From an article by Sen. Emerson Richards in THE AMERICAN ORGANIST, December 1950, about sizeable Roosevelt installations: The chancel organ was crowded into a stone tower with low arches facing the choir. The Great chest was actually below the chancel floor level. The Swell stood above the Great and on about a level with the console, and the unenclosed Choir was placed above the Swell and spoke through a circular hole about 3'6" in diameter! Since the top of the tower was circular and arched, all the pipes over 4' in length had to be mitered to the roof curve. Since both the Great and the Swell were obstructed by a great mass of action parts and Pedal pipes, and the Choir restricted to an absurdly small opening, the ensemble was disappointingly soft and retiring. The console was made of Santo Domingo mahogany and furnished with a very elaborate combination action. The organ was not big in tone but very polished and refined. The tower organ was all electric and spoke through louvers inserted in the tower wall into the church and also through external louvers out upon the grass lawn that surrounds the west entrance. At some point by the 1920's an auxiliary console was added that played the tower divisions.

The organ's installation was delayed until the cathedral was completed in 1883.

Updated through online information from James R. Stettner. -- The organ actually had 9 divisions: Chancel Great, Tower Great, Chancel Swell, Tower Swell, Chancel Choir, Chapel Choir, Solo (in Tower), Echo (between ceiling and roof), and Pedal. The organ was on Roosevelt pat'd chests and employed both tracker-pneumatic and electric action. The chimes were 13 large bells on an all-electric action. The organ was built between 1879 amd 1883 in sections as follows: Opus 66, Chancel divisions; Opus 67, Tower divisions; Opus 68, Echo division; Opus 69, Chapel division, and opus 70, chime action. Combinations were via Roosevelt patented pneumatic toe levers, with six controlling all Chancel division stops, and three controlling all Tower division stops. Source: Roosevelt catalogue.

Identified through online information from Douglas W. Craw. -- Identified through information in "Hilborne Roosevelt Organs," reprinted by the Organ Literature Foundation.