Forty-fourth Street Methodist Episcopal Church

461 West 44th Street, near 10th Avenue
New York, N.Y. 10036


The Forty-fourth Street Methodist Episcopal Church was founded in 1864 as a mission of the New York Methodist Society. A chapel was built on a plot measuring 55 by 75 feet on the north side of West 44th Street, near 10th Avenue. The society was sometimes known as Janes Mission Church and, in later years as the West Side Methodist Episcopal Church. The church went out of existence sometime after 1928.
               
Richard Ferris
New York City (c.1863)
Mechanical action
2 manuals, 18 stops, 19 ranks


The following specification was recorded by F.R. Webber (1887-1963), whose "Organ Scrapbooks" are in the possession of The Organ Historical Society Archives in Princeton, N.J. Webber did not indicate the manual and pedal compasses, but noted that the keyboards did not overhang and that the swell shoe had the initials "F & S" or "J & D." Webber also wrote that "Someone found a 'spear' in a pipe," and "Said to be from an Episcopal church in the rear of the Astor 43d St. St. Mary the Virgin once stood here." [Mr. Webber was in error: St. Mary the Virgin was formerly located two blocks West, at 228 West 45th Street.]
               
Great Organ (Manual I)
8
  Open Diapason  
4
   [Dolcan?] Flute [TC]  
8
  Dulciana [TC]  
3
   Twelfth  
8
   Melodia [TC]  
2
   Fifteenth  
8
   Stopped Diapason Bass       Sesquialtera 2 ranks [12-15]  
4
   Principal  
8
   Cremona  

     

     
Swell Organ (Manual II) – enclosed
16
   Bourdon Treble  
4
   Principal [TC]  
16
   Bourdon Bass  
3
   Twelfth [TC]  
8
   Open Diapason [TC]  
2
   Fifteenth [TC]  
8
   Dulciana [TC]  
8
   Trumpet [TC]  
8
   Dulciana Bass       Tremulant  
8
   Stopped Diapason [TC]          

     

     
Pedal Organ
16
   [Bourdon]          
               
Couplers
    Great and Swell       Bellows Alarm  
    Swell and Pedal          
    Great and Pedal          
               
Sources:
     "Apartment House To Replace Church," The New York Times (July 14, 1931).
     "Celebrated Its Thirtieth Anniversary," The New York Times (Feb. 26, 1894).
     Webber, F.R. "Organ scrapbook" at Organ Historical Society Archives, Princeton, N.J. Specifications of Richard Ferris organ (c.1863). Courtesy Jonathan Bowen.