St. Nicholas Roman Catholic Church (1848) - New York City
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St. Nicholas German Catholic Church
Die Deutsche Romisch-Katholische St. Nicholas Kirche

121 East Second Street between Avenue A and First Avenue
New York, N.Y. 10009


Organ Specifications:
Second building (1848-1960):
► II/45 Engelfried & Hadden (c.1881)
• II/20 Henry Erben (1849)
First building (1836-1848):
• unknown



St. Nicholas German Catholic Church, known to parishioners as Die Deutsche Romisch-Katholische St. Nicholas Kirche, was founded in 1833 by the Rev. John Stephen Raffeiner. For seven years Father Raffeiner was actively engaged in establishing St. Nicholas parish, the oldest German church in the diocese of New York. Seeing a sizable German colony east of the Bowery, the energetic man rented a carpenter shop on Delancey Street, where services were temporarily conducted. He later leased a former meeting house of the Ana-Baptists at Delancey and Pitt Streets, where the first congregation of German Catholics was formally begun. The ever-increasing number of parishioners made it imperative to seek a permanent structure, for which purpose a number of lots were purchased on Second Street, between Avenue A and First Avenue, from John Jacob Astor. At a cost of some $10,000, a brick building was erected on this site and dedicated to St. Nicholas Bishop of Myra, on Easter Sunday,1836. St. Nicholas was a spiritual home of an American saint, John Nepomucene Neumann, who celebrated his first Mass in the church on June 26, 1836, and was canonized in 1977.

The growing number of German immigrants necessitated a larger church, and in 1848 a Gothic Revival building was erected. A second German church, the Church of the Most Holy Redeemer, run by the Redemptorist fathers on East Third Street, was built in 1844 and soon eclipsed St. Nicholas. By the mid-20th century, the demographics had changed on the Lower East Side, resulting in the discontinuance of church services and the parochial school. St. Nicholas Church was sold in 1960 and demolished.
           
Engelfried & Hadden
New York City (ca.1881)
Mechanical action
2 manuals, 35 stops, 45 ranks


The exact date of this organ is unknown, but a New York Times article reporting on the church's fiftieth anniversary, dated September 10, 1883, states "...within a few years a large organ has been placed in the edifice." Lynnwood Farnam, noted concert organist of the early 20th century, visited the church on November 27, 1919, and wrote in one of his organ notebooks that the St. Nicholas organ was a "Fine old organ in very bad condition" and that the organ was in the West gallery position, had tracker action, and electric blowing.
               
Great Organ (Manual I)
16
  Principal  
2 2/3
  Quinte  
8
  Principal  
2
   Waldflöte  
8
  Flöte  
5 1/3
  Grand Cornet (6 fach)  
8
   Gross Gedeckt  
2
   Mixtur (4 fach)  
8
   Viola di Gamba  
8
   Trompete  
8
   Dolce  
8
   Clarinet  
4
   Octave  
4
   Clarion  
4
   Flauto Traverso          
               
Swell Organ (Manual II), enclosed
16
   Bourdon  
4
   Flute d'Amour  
8
   Principal  
2
   'Picolo' [sic]  
8
   Keraulophon  
2 2/3
   Mixtur (3 fach)  
8
   Salicional  
8
   Cornopean  
8
   Gedeckt  
8
   Oboe  
4
   Octave  
8
   Vox Humana  
 
     
 
     
Pedal Organ
16
   Principal Bass  
8
   Octave  
16
   Violon  
8
   Violoncello  
16
   Subbass  
16
   Posaune  
10 2/3
  Great Quint  
8
   Tuba  
               
Accessories and Couplers
    3 unison couplers – by on or off pistons under Swell  
    Swell Tremulant  
    3 composition pedals to Great  
    3 composition pedals to Swell  
    Balanced Swell Pedal  
           
Henry Erben
New York City (1849)
Mechanical action


The 1861 American Musical Directory shows that the organ in St. Nicholas Church had "2 banks keys, 20 stops, 2 octaves pedals" and was "Built by H. Erben, in 1852." Erben's opus list shows that the organ was built in 1849, and this is confirmed by an article in the New York Daily Tribune (Feb. 28, 1849):
LARGE ORGANS.—Two organs of a large class, one built for St. Nicholas' (German Catholic) Church, Second-st the other for St. Peter's, (Catholic) Williamsburgh, are now finished at Mr. Erben's manufactory, Centre-st. They can be seen any afternoon this week after 3 o'clock. A public performance will take place this evening, commencing at 7 o'clock, when eight hundred pieces will be performed on both organs at the same time."
Specifications for this organ have not yet been located.
             
Sources:
     "A Church's Fiftieth Birthday," article in The New York Timess (Sep. 10, 1883).
     American Musical Directory. New York: Thomas Hutchinson, 1861.
     "Church Building Faces Demolition," The New York Times (Jan. 27, 1960).
     Dunlap, David. From Abyssinian to Zion: A Guide to Manhattan's Houses of Worship. New York: Columbia University Press, 2004.
     Farnam, Lynnwood. "Organ Notebook," p.1220 (specification of Engelfried & Hadden organ). John de Lancie Library, The Curtis Institute of Music, Philadelphia; Sally Branca, Archivist. Courtesy Jonathan Bowen.
     "Large Organs," New York Daily Tribune (Feb. 28, 1849). Courtesy Jonathan Bowen.

Illustration:
     Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Online: 1848 engraving of exterior.