Joseph P. Pennington Residence

80 Washington Square South
New York, N.Y. 10003


Joseph P. Pennington was one of six children born to Dr. Samuel H. and Anna Jane McLellan Pennington of Newark, N.J. His father was the President of the Newark City National Bank and the New Jersey Historical Society. Joseph Pennington attended Princeton University, graduating with an AB in 1868, and eventually moved to New York City where he was an actuary. In 1889 he was listed as Assistant Secretary of the Memphis and Charleston Railroad Company. His residence in New York City was opposite the southwest corner of Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village.
               
J.H. & C.S. Odell
New York City – Opus 152 (1876); installed 1910
Mechanical action
2 manuals, 15 stops, 15 ranks


This organ was originally built for the residence of Benjamin Gregory at 324 West 23rd Street.

The handwritten contract, dated May 18, 1876, states that J.H. & C.S. Odell would provide a two-manual "Style D" organ in a case made of walnut. Several alterations to the usual specification were incoporated: an 8' Viol d'Amour replaced the usual Salicional in the Swell Organ, and a reversible coupler for the Great to Pedal and a Pedal Check were added. Odell agreed to furnish an Automatic Engine and feeder, except for the plumbing and gas fitting, and promised the organ would be completed on or before the first of August that same year. Mr. Gregory agreed to pay the sum of $2,600, less $225 for the unidentified "old Organ." A rider to the contract was for the addition of a 4' Flute à Cheminée (46 notes) in the Swell Organ for a consideration of $50; as this stop used the Tremolo knob, Odell provided an alternative (foot?) control to activate the Tremolo.

At an unknown time the organ was moved to the Presbyterian Church in Greenwich, Conn. An entry in an Odell Company Ledger Book (July 10, 1910, p.152) shows that the organ was set up in the residence of Mr. Pennington at a cost of $1,235. The fate of this organ is unknown.
               
Great Organ (Manual I) – 58 notes
8
  Open Diapason
58
8
   Clarionet Flute [TC]
46
8
  Keraulophon
58
4
  Principal
58
8
  Dulce [TC]
46
4
   Wald Flute [TC]
46
8
  Stopped Diapason Bass
12
2
   Fifteenth
58

     

     
Swell Organ (Manual II) – 58 notes, enclosed
8
  Open Diapason
58
4
   Violina
58
8
  Viol d'Amour [TC]
46
4
   Flute [TC]
46
8
  Stopped Diapason Bass
12
2
   Piccolo
58
8
  Stopped Diapason Treble
46
8
  Oboe [TC]
46

     

     
Pedal Organ – 25 notes
16
  Grand Bourdon
25
        
               
Couplers &c
    Reversible Coupler, Swell to Great   Swell to Pedal
    Reversible Coupler, Great to Pedal   Bellows Signal
    Swell to Great   Pedal Check
    Great to Pedal   Tremolo
               
Sources:
     "Annual Dinner of the 'Seventies and Before," Princeton Alumni Weekly (Vol. XVIII, No. 17, Feb. 6, 1918, p. 691).
     J.H. & C.S. Odell Organs web site: http://www.odellorgans.com
     Obituary. Dr. Samuel H. Pennington. The New York Times (Mar. 15, 1900).
     Obituary. Samuel H. Pennington. Proceedings of the New Jersey Historical Society (Vol. IV, No. 1, October 1906).
     Poor, Henry Varnum. Manual of the Railroads in the United States, Vol. 22 (1888).
     Trupiano, Larry. Contract and Specifications of J.H. & C.S. Odell organ, Op. 152 (1876).