St. Mary's Catholic Church - New York City
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Church of St. Mary
(Roman Catholic)

440 Grand Street at Ridge Street
New York, N.Y. 10002


Organ Specifications:
440 Grand Street (since 1833)
• II/ Allen Organ Company electronic
• II/21 M.P. Möller, Op. 2433 (1917)
► III/30 Henry Erben (1875)
• Henry Erben (1853)
• II/18 Henry Erben (1834)
Sheriff Street (1826-1833)
• unknown


St. Mary's Parish was founded in 1826 by Irish immigrants who settled on the lower east side, and was the third Catholic church in New York City, following St. Peter's (1786) on Barclay Street and Old St. Patrick's Cathedral (1815) on Mulberry Street. For the first seven years, services were held on Sheriff Street in the former Seventh Presbyterian Church. In 1831, St. Mary's Church was set afire by Nativists in a violent display of anti-immigrant and anti-Catholic feelings, but the church was not completely destroyed and continued to operate. The next year, in 1832, the cornerstone was laid for the present church building, located on Grand Street at Ridge Street, and it was dedicated in June 1833. Originally built with fieldstone side walls and designed in the Greek Revival style, the facade was altered to Romanesque by Patrick C. Keely in 1864, and other changes were made by Lawrence J. O'Connor in 1871.

In 1836, the Ancient Order of Hibernians, an Irish fraternal organization, began their first New York chapter in response to the burning of St. Mary's and other acts of violence against clergy and property. Since that time, the parish office of St. Mary's Church has been staffed by vicars of Irish descent, although the congregation is now comprised primarily of Dominican and Puerto Rican families that live in the neighborhood.
               
Allen Organ Company
Macungie, Penn.
Protégé Model
2 manuals


Specifications for this organ have not yet been located.
               
M.P. Möller, Inc.
Hagerstown, Md. – Opus 2433 (1917)
Electro-pneumatic key action
2 manuals, 21 registers


Specifications for this organ have not yet been located.
               
Henry Erben
New York City (1875)
Mechanical action
3 manuals, 29 stops, 30? ranks


The following specification was recorded on October 4, 1952 by F.R. Webber, whose "Organ Scrapbooks" are in the possession of The Organ Historical Society Archives in Princeton, N.J. Click here to see the notebook page. Webber included the following notes:

1600 pipes
19' x 16' x 30' h.
– Music Trade Review, Dec.3, 1875, p. 38
The Erben book [calls] it at 1865
St. Mary's, Grand & Ridge sts., said to have had an Erben 2-18 built in 1836. 1½ octaves of pedals. (A.M. Directory).
               
Great Organ
8
   Open Diapason [large scale]  
3
   Twelfth  
8
   Stopped Diapason bass  
2
   Fifteenth  
8
   Stopped Diapason treble       Sesquialtera [2 ranks?]  
8
   Gamba  
8
   Trumpet  
4
   Principal  
4
   Clarion  
               
Swell Organ
16
   Bourdon       Cornet [3 ranks?]
56
8
   Open Diapason  
8
   Hautbois
56
8
   Viole d'Amour  
8
   Cornopean
56
8
   Stopped Diapason       Tremolo  
4
   Principal          
               
Choir Organ
8
   Open Diapason [large scale]  
4
   Principal  
8
   Dulciana  
4
   Flute  
8
   Stopped Diapason bass  
2
   Flageolet  
8
   Clarabella  
8
   Cremona & Bassoon  
               
Pedal Organ
16
   Double Open Diapason  
8
   Violoncello  
16
   Gamba          
               
Couplers
    Great and Swell       Pedal and Choir  
    Choir and Swell       Great and Choir  
    Pedal and Great          
               
Henry Erben
New York City (1853)
Mechanical action


Specifications for this organ have not yet been located.
               
Henry Erben
New York City (1834)
Mechanical action
2 manuals, 18 stops


The 1861 American Musical Directory states that the organ in St. Mary's Church had "2 banks keys, 18 stops, 1½ octaves pedals" and was "Built by H. Erben, in 1834." Specifications for this organ have not yet been located.
               
Sources:
     American Musical Directory. New York: Thomas Hutchinson, 1861.
     Dunlap, David. From Abyssinian to Zion: A Guide to Manhattan's Houses of Worship. New York: Columbia University Press, 2004.
     Nelson, George. Organs in the United States and Canada Database. Seattle, Wash.
     "Saint Mary's Church Has a Centennial," The New York Times (May 10, 1926).
     Ulmann, Albert. A Landmark History of New York: Also the Origin of Street Names and a Bibliography. New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1901.
     Webber, F.R. "Organ scrapbook" at Organ Historical Society Archives, Princeton, N.J. Specifications of Henry Erben organ (1875). Courtesy Jonathan Bowen.

Illustration:
     Bowen, Jonathan: Image of page in F.R. Webber's "Organ scrapbook."