Labagh & Kemp
New York City (1872)
Mechanical action
3 manuals, 39 stops, 43 ranks


The original organ in the second church was built in 1872 by Labagh & Kemp, successors to Hall & Labagh of New York City. Labagh & Kemp moved and rebuilt the 1847 Hall & Labagh organ from the first church building. This organ was described in the New York Weekly Review (Dec. 28, 1872):

In the construction of this instrument the problem to be solved by the builders was to obtain a quality of tone that would fill the large building in which it is placed, without appearing rough or boisterous to the listeners; and to accomplish this the largest scales throughout the organ have been used, avoiding anything like forced voicing, and the result has been successful. It is not so powerful as others of the same class, but there is in the tone a mellowness that amply compensates for the power lost. The entire instrument is located in a chamber that was, we believe, specially constructed for it. The bellows is located in a room above the organ chamber, and distant twenty-five feet. This necessitated the use of additional wind reservoirs, placed immediately under the chests to obtain steadiness of tone. Every register in the organ extends throughout the entire compass, and all the metal pipes from a four-feet length are of forty-five per cent tin and fifty-five per cent lead. The case is of a design strikingly beautiful and novel, full in keeping with the architecture of the church, which is one of the most substantial and costly that has ever been constructed in this country.