Seventh Regiment Armory "From Architect's Drawing" (1877) - New York City (Harper's Weekly)
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1881 Music Festival

May 3–7, 1881

Seventh Regiment Armory
643 Park Avenue at 66th Street
New York, N.Y. 10021
             
  Opening Night of the New York Music Festival of 1881 - Handel's "Dettingen Te Deum." Wood engraving from cover of American Art Journal (14 May 1881)
  Opening Night of the New York Music Festival of 1881 - Handel's "Dettingen Te Deum." Wood engraving from cover of American Art Journal (14 May 1881)
 
  Engraving showing Roosevelt organ
Hilborne L. Roosevelt

New York City – Opus 7 (1874)
Tubular-pneumatic action
Barker lever action for Great and couplers
3 manuals, 37 stops, 47 ranks





The organ used for the 1881 Music Festival was built in 1874 by Hilborne L. Roosevelt for St. Vincent Ferrer Church. Roosevelt chose to move this organ to the Seventh Regiment Armory, located diagonally across Lexington Avenue from the church, rather than provide a new one, "there being features about it which commended themselves specially for festival purposes, particularly the Double Open Diapason (32-feet tone) of the Pedal organ." The organ (as set up in the church) measured 32 feet across, 18 feet deep, and nearly 40 feet high.

Roosevelt used tubular action for the Swell and Pedal organs, and the pneumatic (Barker) lever was applied to the Great organ and its couplers. This organ was the third three-manual to be built by the Roosevelt firm.
               
Great Organ (Manual II) – 58 notes
16
   Double Open Diapason
58
4
   Flute
58
16
   Double Gemshorn
58
2
   Wald Flöte
58
8
   Open Diapason
58
     Mixture, 4 ranks
232
8
   Violin
58
     Cornet, 4 and 5 ranks
278?
8
   Melodia
58
8
   Trumpet
58
4
   Principal
58
4
   Clarion
58

     

     
Swell Organ (Manual III) – 58 notes, enclosed
16
   Bourdon
58
     Mixture, 4 ranks
232
8
   Open Diapason
58
8
   Cornopean
58
8
   Keraulophon
58
8
   Oboe
58
8
   Rohr Flute
58
8
   Vox Humana
58
4
   Principal
58
     Tremulant  
4
   Flauto Traverso
58
        
               
Choir Organ (Manual I) – 58 notes
8
   Doppel Flöte
58
4
   Viol d'Amour
58
8
   Gamba
58
4
   Rohr Flute
58
8
   Dolce
58
2
   Piccolo
58
8
   Concert Flute
58
8
   Clarionette
58

     

     
Pedal Organ – 27 notes
32
   Double Open Diapason
27
8
   Violoncello
27
16
   Open Diapason
27
16
   Bombard
27
16
   Double Gamba
27
8
   Tuba
27
16
   Bourdon
27
        
               
Couplers
    Swell to Great   Swell to Pedal
    Swell to Great octaves   Solo to Pedal
    Solo to Great   Great to Pedal
    Swell to Solo    
         
Pedal Movements
    Tutti Pedal, to bring out all stops of Great Organ
    Swell Organ. Pedal Organ and Great to Pedal, and Swell to Great Coupler
    Pedal to throw off loud Stops.
    Piano Pedal    
    Bellows Signal    
    Balanced Swell Pedal    
             
Sources:
     "The Festival Organ," Music Review (date unknown). Specification of Hilborne L. Roosevelt organ, Op. 7 (1874). Courtesy Larry Trupiano.
     Webber, F.R. "Organ scrapbook" at Organ Historical Society Archives, Princeton, N.J. Specifications of Hilborne L. Roosevelt organ, Op. 7 (1874). Courtesy Jonathan Bowen.

Illustrations:
     "Opening Night of the New York Music Festival of 1881 – Handel's 'Dettingen Te Deum'." Wood engraving. American Art Journal 35 (14 May 1881): cover.
     Harper's weekly : a journal of civilization. (New York : Harper' s Weekly Co., 1857-1916.). Print of Seventh Regiment Armory from the architect's drawings (Oct. 13, 1877).
     Unidentified engraving showing Roosevelt organ. Courtesy Larry Trupiano.