St. Luke Episcopal Church


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St. Luke Episcopal Church

435 West 141st Street at Convent Avenue
New York, N.Y. 10031

Organ Specifications:
435 West 141st Street at Convent Avenue (since 1892)
► IV/38 Austin Organ Company, Op. 284 (1910)
• L. C. Harrison (1886) – moved from old church (c.1892)
485 Hudson Street near Barrow Street (1822-1889)
• L. C. Harrison (1886)
• II/ George Earle (1871)
• II/18 Henry Erben (1830)
• Thomas Redstone (1824)

Church of St. Luke-in-the-Fields - New York City

In 1820, homeowners in the West Village, including Don Alonzo Cushman, a developer who built much of Chelsea, and Clement Clarke Moore, another prominent landowner, known as the author of ''A Visit From St. Nicholas'' (though his authorship has been questioned), established St. Luke's Church to serve the new neighborhood. In 1822 they built the simple brick house of worship that still survives at 485 Hudson Street, near Barrow Street – it is now known as the Church of St. Luke-in-the-Fields. By the 1880s the Village was no longer an area of elite private houses. Tenements full of immigrants were encroaching on all sides. But St. Luke's remained an elite Episcopal parish.

The vestry received a shock in 1887 when Trinity Church, at Wall Street and Broadway, notified St. Luke's that it would soon be building a new complex to serve the immigrant population, on land it owned on the east side of Hudson Street between St. Luke's Place and Clarkson Street, just a few blocks south. The Trinity complex was never built, but at the time St. Luke's felt that the plan would effectively extinguish its own existence, in part because Trinity subsidized St. Luke's, and that subsidy would soon end. After a protest, Trinity offered to pay St. Luke's $150,000 for its property, according to Penelope Tuttle's 1927 book, ''History of St. Luke's Church.'' St. Luke's accepted, and the church decided to move, she wrote, ''far enough north to be sure of peace for at least a good long term of years.'' This turned out to be the northeast corner of 141st Street and Convent Avenue, at the edge of a high plateau with an emerging stock of sizable row houses.

In 1889, St. Luke's held its first uptown service, not in its present church but in the 1802 house of Alexander Hamilton on the next lot up, just north of 141st Street -- it had moved the Hamilton house from 143rd Street and Convent Avenue to make way for more row houses. The vestry was struggling for cash and seriously considered building only a basement on the steeply sloping 141st Street site. But in 1891 the architect Robert H. Robertson designed an ambitious new church, which opened the next year. Robertson had become prominent in the 1880's for his deft, vigorous modeling of the Romanesque style, often in rock-faced brownstone, for church and other designs, including the Young Women's Christian Association building at 7 East 15th Street.

Apparently because of continuing financial difficulties, St. Luke's had to cut back on its plans, leaving until a later time much of the stone carving and a tall, square corner tower. (Some carving was eventually done, but the corner tower was never built.) Writing in The Architectural Record in 1896, the critic Montgomery Schuyler praised the church and noted that the uncarved ornament contributed to the impressive severity of the design. But he did remark that the finished building ''suffers from the absence of the tower designed for it.''

The completed church, mostly in deep red brownstone, presents a broad porch facing Convent Avenue. A side elevation of multiple arcades on 141st Street, which drops steeply to the east, reveals the broad rear facade. The architectural historian Andrew Dolkart calls this perspective ''one of the most powerful architectural statements in New York.'' It appears the church has never been cleaned, and its patina is the architectural equivalent of the rich golden burnish of a Victorian cabinet of oak or maple.

By the 1920's, African Americans were moving into Harlem, and in 1922 the church established the St. Luke's Episcopal Mission for Negroes in an old row house at 28 Edgecombe Avenue, near 136th Street, creating a chapel seating 300. Michael Adams, an architectural historian who specializes in Harlem buildings, said that the mission was probably an effort to keep African-Americans segregated from the regular parish.


	Photo from Austin Organ Company brochure

Austin Organ Company
Hartford, Conn. – Opus 284 (1910)
Electro-pneumatic action
4 manuals, 48 stops, 38 ranks

The organ in St. Luke's Church was built in 1910 by the Austin Organ Company of Hartford. Austin installed most of the organ in chambers on both sides of the chancel, with the enclosed Solo and Echo division at the West End. At an unknown time, the enclosure and swell shades of the Solo and Echo were removed. An article in The Diapason (Dec. 1, 1910) includes the specification found below. It also noted that "Recitals by men prominent in the profession have been arranged by Mr. Coombs. The first was given Nov. 16 by G. Waring Stebbings, organist of Emmanuel Baptist church [Brooklyn], and the others are as follows: Nov. 23, Mark Andrews, St. Luke's church, Monclair [N.J.]; Dec. 1, Samuel Baldwin, organist of the City College; Dec. 6, William C. Carl, First Presbyterian church, and Dec. 15, Walter C. Gale of the Broadway tabernacle."

Austin Organ, Op. 284 (1912) at St. Luke Episcopal Church - Harlem, New York City (photo: David Schmauch)

Austin Organ, Op. 284 (1912) at St. Luke Episcopal Church - Harlem, New York City (photo: Harlem One Stop)

Great Organ (Manual II) – 61 notes, partially enclosed with Choir

Major Diapason

Harmonic Flute *

Principal Diapason

Octave

Small Diapason

Trumpet *

Violoncello *

Swell to Great 16, 8, 4, 2

Gross Flute

Choir to Great 16, 8, 4

Claribel Flute *

Solo and Echo to Great 8, 4

* enclosed in Choir box

Swell Organ (Manual III) – 61 notes, enclosed

Bourdon

Flageolet

Diapason Phonon

Contra Fagotto

Rohr Flöte

Cornopean

Viole d'Orchestre

Oboe

Viole Celeste

Vox Humana

Echo Salicional

Tremulant

Quintadena

Swell 16, Unison Off, 4

Flauto Traverso

Solo and Echo to Swell 8

Choir Organ (Manual I) – 61 notes, enclosed

Contra Viole

Clarinet

Geigen Principal

Tremulant

Dulciana

Choir 16, Unison Off, 4

Vox Angelica

Swell to Choir 16, 8, 4

Concert Flute

Solo and Echo to Choir 8

Flute d'Amour

Solo and Echo Organ (Manual IV) – 61 notes, enclosed (at West End of Church)

Flauto Major

Unda Maris [TC]

Gross Gamba

Fern Flute

Tuba Profunda [ext.]

Tremulant

Harmonic Tuba

Chimes

20 bronze tubes

Harmonic Clarion [ext.]

Solo and Echo 16, Unison Off, 4

Flauto Dolce

Pedal Organ – 32 notes ("Augmented")

Magnaton [ext.]

Flauto Dolce

Open Diapason

Contra Fagotto

Violone

Tuba Profunda

Bourdon

Harmonic Tuba

Lieblich Gedackt

Swell to Pedal 8, 4

Contra Viole

Great to Pedal 8, 4

Gross Flute

Solo and Echo to Pedal 8

Adjustable Combinations

Great Stops & Couplers	Pistons 1-2-3-4-5-6
Swell Stops & Couplers	Pistons 1-2-3-4-5-6
Choir Stops & Couplers	Pistons 1-2-3-4-5-6
Solo and Echo Stops & Couplers	Pistons 1-2-3-4-5-6
Pedal Stops & Couplers	Pistons 1-2-3-4 (toe)

Pedal Movements

Balanced Swell Pedal

Great to Pedal Reversible

Balanced Choir Pedal

Solo and Echo to Great Reversible

Balanced Solo and Echo Pedal

Sforzando Pedal

Balanced Crescendo Pedal

Organ in church on Hudston Street:

L. C. Harrison
New York City. (1886)
Mechanical action

In 1886, L.C. Harrison, who had acquired the Henry Erben firm in New York City, built a new organ for St. Luke's at a cost of $10,000. This organ was moved to the new church building in Harlem. An entry (Oct. 1908) in the Reuben Midmer & Sons Ledger Book shows a charge of $865 – possibly to convert the organ from tracker to pneumatic action.

Specifications for this organ have not yet been located.

Organ in church on Hudston Street:

George W. Earle
Riverhead, N.Y. (1871)
Mechanical action
2 manuals

Specifications for this organ have not yet been located.

Organ in church on Hudston Street:

Henry Erben
New York City (1830)
Mechanical action
2 manuals, 18 stops

A new organ was built in 1830 by Henry Erben of New York City. This organ had two manuals, 18 stops, and an octave-and-a-half of pedals. In 1859, the organ was revoiced by L. U. Stuart of New York City. Specifications for this organ have not yet been located.

Organ in church on Hudston Street:

Thomas Redstone
New York City (1824)
Mechanical action

The first known organ for St. Luke Church was built in 1824 by Thomas Redstone of New York City, at a cost of $235. Specifications for this organ have not yet been located.

Sources:
     Bowen, Jonathan. Stoplist of Austin Organ, Op. 284 (1910).
     Gray, Christopher. "Streetscapes/141st Street and Convent Avenue; 1892 Church for a Congregation That Moved Uptown," The New York Times (Oct. 20, 2002).
     Ochse, Orpha. "A Glimpse of the 1860s," The American Organist (Nov. 1969).
     "Organ for C. W. Coombs," The Diapason (Dec. 1, 1910). Specification of Austin Organ, Op. 284 (1910). Courtesy Larry Trupiano.
     Reuben Midmer & Sons Ledger Book (Oct. 1908). Entry showing $850 charge. Courtesy Larry Trupiano.
     St. Luke in-the-Fields Church web site: http://www.stlukeinthefields.org/
     Tuttle, Mrs. H. Croswell. "History of Saint Luke's Church in the City of New York 1820-1920." New York: Apeal Printing Company, 1926.

Illustrations:
     Austin Organ Company brochure showing Austin Organ, Op. 284 (1910). Courtesy Jonathan Bowen.
     Harlem One Stop website www.harlemonestop.com. Interior with Echo pipes of Austin Organ, Op. 284 (1910).
     St. Luke in-the-Fields Church web site. Original building on Hudson Street.
     Schmauch, David. Console and case of Austin Organ, Op. 284 (1910).

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