Empire City Skating Rink - New York City
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American Institute Fair

Empire City Skating Rink Building
Corner of 63rd Street and Third Avenue
New York, N.Y. 10009


Organ Specifications:
Empire City Skating Rink Building
• II/24 George Jardine & Son (1880)
► II/15 George Jardine & Son (1878)
• II/24 George Jardine & Son (1877)
• I/4 George Jardine & Son (1870)
► I/6 George Jardine & Son (1869)
Niblo's Garden – Broadway & Prince Street (until 1845)
• I/10 George Jardine (1844)
           
George Jardine & Son
New York City (1880)
Mechanical action
2 manuals, 24 stops


This organ was moved to Church of the Annunciation, New Orleans, La. Specifications of this organ have not yet been located.
           
George Jardine & Son
New York City (1880)
Mechanical action
2 manuals, 16 stops, 15 ranks


From American Art Journal (Oct. 5, 1878:


The Great Organ at the American Institute

"The grand organ now standing in the Fair of the American Institute, erected by Messrs. George Jardine & Son, of this city, is a source of great attraction. It is performed upon daily by several of our first-class organists, and the compositions of the great masters are, from the capabilities and mechanical improvements in this instrument, rendered with most charming effects; in fact, it comprises all the advantages of the best concerted bands of wind and even string instruments, as all modern improvements are herein carried out.

"Among the various improvements of which Mr. Jardine was absolutely the very first to introduce and invent, are the combination and reversible pedals, his own invented pneumatic and vacuum pallets or valves, now generally used by the English organ builders, and accredited to him in "Hompkins & Rimbault's work on the Organ;" also, vertical swell blinds or "shades," which render a single set more effective, both as in crescendo and sforzando, than the double blinds as usually contrived. Mr. Jardine was also the very first to introduce, many years ago, the projecting or overhanging keys, now universally copied, without the least acknowledgment of that fact; also, the grand improvement of reversed bellows ribs, which entirely remedied the unsteady variableness of the wind caused by careless blowing. He was also the very first to introduce the vox angelica, the clariana, flute harmonique, Viol di Gamba, the French vox humana and French tremolo."
               
Great Organ (Manual I) – 58 notes
16
   Double Diapason
58
4
   Principal
58
8
  Melody Diapason
58
2 2/3
  Twelfth
58
8
  Grand Open Diapason
58
2
   Fifteenth
58
8
   Clariana
58
8
   Trumpet
58
4
   Flute Harmonic
58
   

     

     
Swell Organ (Manual II) – 58 notes, enclosed
8
   Open Diapason
58
8
   Gamba
58
8
   Stopped Diapason
58
8
   Bassoon
58
8
   Clarionet Flute
58
     Tremulant

     

 
 
Pedal Organ – 27 notes
16
  Double Diapason
27
   
8
   "with octaves"
12
   
               
Mechanicals
    "all the necessary coupling and combination movements, balance swell, &c."
           
George Jardine & Son
New York City (1880)
Mechanical action
1 manual, 4 stops


The specifications for this organ have not yet been located.
           
George Jardine & Son
New York City (1870)
Mechanical action
1 manual, 6 stops, 6 ranks


The specifications for this organ have not yet been located.
            
George Jardine & Son
New York City (1869)
Mechanical action
1 manual, 6 stops, 6 ranks


From a single-page flyer:


ORCHESTRAL ORGAN, INVENTED AND BUILT BY GEORGE JARDINE & SON,
Now on Exhibition at the Great Fair of the American Institute
               
Manual – 61 notes (13" wind pressure)
1.
   Flute a Pavillon Wood, 8 feet. Tone full, melodious, and of remarkable pervading quality.
2.
   Open Diapason Metal, 8 feet. Tone clear and ringing.
3.
   Flute Harmonic Metal, 4 feet. Very imitative, and pure intonation.
4.
   Tuba Mirabilis Metal, 8 feet. A trumpet of enormous scale, of singular traveling tone, very powerful, yet round and mellow.
5.
   Trombone Metal, 8 feet. Very orchestral and smooth.
6.
   Bombarde
Metal, 16 feet. Deep solid tone, forming the substratum of the whole work.
7.
   Octave Coupler Adding brilliancy.
Pedal – 25 notes
               
The organ is voiced to the unprecedented wind force of 12 inches [sic], making it the most powerful instrument in the world. This enormous pressure on the valves is overcome by JARDINE'S Patent Vacuum Pallet, rendering the touch perfectly easy.

The Bellows is blown by a steam engine.
This organ will form part of the Grand Organ of the Cathedral of New York [St. Patrick's], now building on Fifth Avenue.
           
George Jardine
New York City (1844)
Mechanical action
1 manual, 10 stops


The specifications for this organ have not yet been located.
           
Sources:
     Brown, Henry Collins, ed. Valentine's Manual of the City of New York: 1917-1918 (New Series No. 2). New York: The Old Colony Press, 1917.
     Ogasapian, John. Organ Building in New York City: 1700-1900. Braintree: The Organ Literature Foundation, 1977.
     "The Great Organ at the American Institute," American Art Journal (Oct. 5, 1878). Description and specifications of George Jardine & Son organ (1878). Courtesy Larry Trupiano.

Illustration:
     Brown, Henry Collins, ed. Valentine's Manual of the City of New York: 1917-1918: Empire Skating Rink.