Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary - St. Stephen

Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary – St. Stephen
(Roman Catholic)

Summit Street at Hicks Street
Brooklyn, N.Y. 11231
http://www.delvecchiorc.com

Organ Specifications:
Summit Street at Hicks Street (since 1875)
► III/31 Geo. Kilgen & Son, Op. 7560 (1952); alt.
• Geo. Kilgen & Son, Op. 4793 (1931) – burned with church (1951)
► III/37 Hilborne L. Roosevelt, Op. 17 (1875)
Corner of Carroll and Hicks Streets (1866-1875)
• II/ Ferris & Stuart (1861)

The Roman Catholic Church of Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary – St. Stephen was formed in 1941 when two parishes were consolidated. The combined parishes occupy the building occupied since 1875 by St. Stephen's Church.

St. Stephen's Parish was established in 1866 to serve the area bounded by Degraw Street, Henry Street, Cole Street and Hamilton Avenue to the ferry. The first church, the former St. Paul Episcopal Church on the corner of Carroll and Hicks Street, was purchased by Rev. Father Dorris, the first pastor, for $15,000. Built in the Cottage Gothic style, the church measured 95 feet long by 65 feet wide and could accomodate about 600 persons. Inside, the church was handsomely furnished with cushioned pews and carpeted aisles, and the painted drab color walls were blocked out to imitate stone. On Sunday, July 15, 1866, the church was dedicated by Bishop Loughlin, assisted by Rev. Father Dorris.

As the parish membership increased, plans were made by Father O'Reilly, the pastor, to build a larger church. The cornerstone for the present building was laid by Bishop Loughlin in July 1873, and the new church was opened with "dignity and ceremonial pomp" on October 31, 1875. Patrick C. Keely, the Brooklyn architect who was noted for his many churches, designed the neo-Gothic church. The old church was converted into a school and placed under the care of the Sisters of Charity.

The Church of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus & Mary was established by Fr. Joseph Fransioli in 1882 as the Catholic Mission of the Italian Colony of the City of Brooklyn. This mission was the first Roman Catholic parish community established specifically for Italian immigrants in the Diocese of Brooklyn, which comprised the whole of Long Island, including the counties of Kings, Queens, Nassau and Suffolk. Sacred Hearts was established as a national parish that served neighborhood parishioners but also welcomed all Italians. Initially, the new Italian parish occupied space belonging to St. Peter’s church, at the corner of Warren and Hicks Streets. The first permanent church was opened in May 1885 on President Street off of Van Brunt Street. By 1900 the number of Italian immigrants living in the vicinity of the President Street church was the largest single concentration of Italians in the country. Convinced of the need for a larger church, Father Vogel found property on Degraw and Hicks Streets to build a new larger church. Upon completion of the new church in 1906, Father Vogel felt it necessary to keep the prior church building at President Street open to serve the community as a chapel for the parish under the title of Saint Charles Chapel. To make room for what would become known as the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway (BQE), the Church of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary was condemned by Robert Moses. On the morning of December 7, 1941, a final Mass was celebrated, followed by a grand procession of the parish’s Italian Societies, the statues of their patron saints held aloft, on their shoulders, to their new home at St. Stephen’s Church. Ironically, the same expressway runs in a trench alongside the present church.

On January 10, 1951, a five-alarm fire almost completely destroyed the church building. Fundraising drives were immediately initiated to rebuild the 75-year-old structure, and the reconstructed church reopened in early 1952.

Geo. Kilgen & Son
St. Louis, Mo. – Opus 7560 (1952)
Electro-pneumatic action
3 manuals, 34 registers, 28 stops, 31 ranks

A new organ was installed in 1952, as described in the September 1951 issue of The Diapason:

"The Church ... has placed an order for a three-manual organ with the Kilgen Organ Company, St. Louis, through its pastor, the Rev. Francis del Vecchio. The organ will be placed in the choir gallery at the rear of the new church, with the swell in one chamber, the great and the major part of the pedal in another chamber, and the choir section in an expression box, thus placing the entire instrument under separate expression control. An attractive screen enclosed in display pipes, panel work and grille, will be built by the Kilgen Company to screen the organ. The specifications were drawn up by Benoit Mauro in collaboration with the Kilgen factory branch in New York.
"The new church, on Hicks Street in Brooklyn, will replace an edifice built seventy-five [in 1875] years ago, which was destroyed by fire in January, and it will be one of the imposing church buildings of Brooklyn when completed early in 1952."

Great Organ (Manual II) – 61 notes, enclosed

Violone

Flute d'Amour

Open Diapason

Waldflöte

Doppelflöte

Grave Mixture II ranks

122

Gamba

Tuba Harmonic

Octave

Chimes

25 tubes

Swell Organ (Manual III) – 61 notes, enclosed

Bourdon

Flute Harmonique

Open Diapason

Harmonic Piccolo

Stopped Diapason

Mixture III ranks

183

Viole d'Orchestre

Oboe

Salicional

Vox Humana

Voix Celeste

Tremolo

Choir Organ (Manual I) – 61 notes, enclosed

Geigen Diapason

Clarinet

Dulciana

Orchestral Oboe

Unda Maris (TC)

Tremolo

Flauto Traverso

Chimes

Pedal Organ – 32 notes

Resultant

—

Lieblich Gedeckt

Double Open Diapason

Flauto Major (fr. Dbl OD)

—

Bourdon

Violoncello

Violone

Trombone (ext. GT)

Geo. Kilgen & Son
St. Louis, Mo. – Opus 4793 (1931)
Electro-pneumatic action

This organ burned with the church in January 1951. Specifications of this organ have not yet been located.

Hilborne L. Roosevelt New York City – Opus 17 (1875); rev. Tubular-pneumatic action 3 manuals, 33 stops, 37 ranks The original organ in the present church was built in 1875 by Hilborne L. Roosevelt of New York City. In September 1921, the following specifications were recorded by Louis F. Mohr, an organ service person in the area. Mohr noted the feeders were worked by a 1½ H.P. electric motor that was installed in 1913 by Nilsson Mfg. Co., of Brooklyn. Larry Trupiano, organbuilder from Brooklyn, recalls that an uncle was a member of St. Stephen's and learned to play the organ on the Roosevelt. The uncle mentioned that several stops had been relocated by the organist of the church: the Choir Twelfth was from the Great, the Gt. Quintadena was from the Choir, and the Swell Quint was the original Celeste rank moved to 2-2/3' pitch. The uncle also said the organ had tubular action with a detached console, but this was not confirmed.

Great Organ (Manual II) – 58 notes
16	Open Diapason	58	4	Principal	58
8	Open Diapason	58	4	Flute Harmonique	58
8	Viola di Gamba	58	2	Fifteenth	58
8	Doppel Flöte	58		Mixture, 3 ranks	174
8	Quintadena [orig. in CH]	58	8	Trumpet	58

Swell Organ (Manual III) – 58 notes, enclosed
8	Open Diapason	58	2	Flageolet	58
8	Salicional	58		Cornet, 3 ranks	174
8	Stopped Diapason	58	8	Cornopean	58
4	Octave	58	8	Oboe	58
4	____ [Hohl Flöte?]	58	8	Vox Humana	58
2 2/3	Quint [Celeste moved up]	58

Choir Organ (Manual I) – 58 notes
8	Violin Diapason	58	4	Rohr Flute	58
8	Melodia	58	2 2/3	Twelfth [orig. in GT]	58
8	Dolce	58	2	Piccolo Harmonique	58
4	Gemshorn	58	8	Clarabella [orig. Clarinet?]	58

Pedal Organ – 27 notes
16	Double Open Diapason	27	10 2/3	Quint	27
16	Bourdon	27	8	Violoncello	27

Couplers
	Great to Pedal			Swell to Great Octaves
	Swell to Pedal			Choir to Great
	Choir to Pedal			Choir to Great Suboctave
	Swell to Great			Swell to Choir

Mechanical Accessories
	Swell Tremulant			Bells

Pedal Movements
	Great Organ Forte ["3 Comb Ped Gt"]			Swell Organ Forte ["2 Comb Ped Sw"]
	Great Organ Mezzo			Swell Organ Piano
	Great Organ Piano			Balanced Swell Pedal
	Great to Pedal Reversible			[Balanced Choir Pedal?]

Sources:
     "Another New Church. Dedication of St. Stephen's R. Catholic Church," Brooklyn Eagle (July 16, 1866).
     The Catholic Church in the United States of America: Undertaken to Celebrate the Golden Jubilee of His Holiness, Pope Pius X, Vol. III. New York: The Catholic Editing Company, 1914.
     The Diapason (Sept. 1951). Stoplist of Geo. Kilgen & Son organ, Op. 7560 (1952). Courtesy Jeff Scofield.
     Mohr, Louis F. & Co. Specifications (Sept. 1921) of Hilborne L. Roosevelt Organ, Op. 17 (1875). Courtesy Larry Trupiano.
     Morone, Francis. "A Gothic Beauty," The New York Sun (Sept. 13, 2007).
     Nelson, George. Organs in the United States and Canada Database. Seattle, Wash.
     Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn website: http://www.dioceseofbrooklyn.org
     Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary –St. Stephen website: http://www.delvecchiorc.com
     "St. Stephen's. Dedication of Father O'Reilly's New Church," The Brooklyn Eagle (Nov. 1, 1875).

Illustration:
     Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn web site. Exterior

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