Church of the Holy Evangelists
(Protestant Episcopal)

Beekman Street
New York, N.Y. 10003


Organ Specifications:
• Henry Pilcher, Op. 1 (<1844)
► III/37 Thomas Hall (1822)
           
Henry Pilcher
New York City – Opus 1 (<1844)
Mechanical action


Sometime before 1844, Henry Pilcher built his first organ for Holy Evangelists Church. Bynum Petty, Archivist for the Organ Historical Society in Princeton, N.J., reported that "On December 10, 1844, John Vache Cox married Pilcher's daughter, Eliza, in Church of the Holy Evangelists. Therefore, we may assume that Pilcher's opus 1 dates from 1844 or earlier". Specifications of this organ have not yet been located.
           
Thomas Hall
New York City (1822)
Mechanical action
3 manuals, 28 stops, 37 ranks



Thomas Hall built this organ when the edifice was known as St. George's Church. The organ cost $3,000 and had a mahogany case that was 14 feet wide, 8 feet deep, and 24 feet high with gilded front pipes. This was a "G" organ with a Swell organ to "fiddle G". The Hall organ remained in its original location for use by it new occupants, the Church of the Holy Evangelists, when St. George's moved in 1848 to its building on Stuyvesant Square. The Church of the Holy Evangelists dissolved in 1860, and the Hall organ and church bell reverted to St. George's Church. Following the 1865 fire that destroyed St. George's and its 1856 Erben organ, St. George's rebuilt their church and moved the Hall organ to serve as a temporary organ until a new organ by George Jardine & Son could be built.
               
Great Organ
16
   Double Open Diapason  
2
   Fifteenth  
8
   Open Diapason       Sesquialtera, 3 ranks  
8
   Stop Diapason       Cornet, 5 ranks [mounted]  
4
   Principal  
8
   Trumpet  
3
   Twelfth  
4
   Clarion  
               
Swell Organ
16
   Double Stop Diapason  
4
   Night Horn  
8
   Open Diapason       Cornet, 4 ranks  
8
   Stop Diapason  
8
   Trumpet  
8
   Viol di Gamba  
8
   Hautboy  
4
   Principal       Trimland [sic]  
               
Choir Organ
8
   Dulceano  
4
   Flute  
8
   Stop Diapason  
2
   Fifteenth  
4
   Principal  
8
   Bassoon  
               
Pedals
      Coupler
16
   Double Open Diapason       Coupling Stopp  
16
   Stop Diapason          
8
   Principal          
           
Sources:
     Dunlap, David W. From Abyssinian to Zion: A Guide to Manhattan's Houses of Worship. New York: Columbia University Press, 2004.
     Ogasapian, John. Organ Building in New York City: 1700-1900. Braintree: The Organ Literature Foundation, 1977. Specification of Thomas Hall organ (1822).
     Petty, Bynum. Electronic correspondence (Oct. 9, 2013) regarding Henry Pilcher organ, Op. 1.