This substantial old Victorian Church, with its dry acoustics and other problems, peculiar to the mid-Manhattan area, had Austin rebuilt its 1889 Roosevelt in 1911, and then again in 1954 included several of the original stops in the present extended specification.
     Factors in its auditorium, favorable to excellent speech, such as mahogany surfacings and good placement, and constituents of its musical program were the basic determinants in this design.
     The pipe-work (about half of which is unenclosed) includes both unnicked and nicked varities in the labials, and half and shorter lengths in the linguals and follows the Schnitger parallel-construction on low wind-pressure, with its overall gentleness and clarity of sound, and promptness of speech. Voices, none of which are loud, were chosen to avoid redundancy, each having an individuated significance in an autonomy of its respective division. Evolution of autonomy was in the simple classic manner: a "full-sounding" Hauptwerk, a "bright-sounding" Positiv, and a Pedal, relating to these two divisions in the main. The Swell is quasi-accompanimental, and foil. A specialized tonal goal was in the projection of power as an illusion of intensity, rather than a high-decibel reality.
     The many unnicked labials are indicative of a return in music-making to parallels existing in speech-making. A vitality in articulation, inherent in the more pronounced and sometimes energetic ictus-factor of sound, is analogous to "consonating" in speech. Consequent definition and affirmation of phrase and punctuative factor is thus opposed to the rather negate and vague mumbling, which has relegated so much of organ "speech" to mere background apologetics and the scorn of the other instrumentalists.
     The classic-patterned unnicked pipe also predicates a combinative potential, both challenging and surprising in dimension. In contemporary revived orientations (both in Europe and America) much of design is posited at the crossroads: "To nick, or not to nick." An organ is evolved hence, not merely as a collection of stops, but a validation of the timeless principles in pipe-sound, which has both founded and anchored a rather comprehensive literature. West Park's instrument is perhaps the first recent excursion into this arena of sound in the metropolitan area.
     By New York City standards, this instrument actually is quite small, but can best be evaluated by its empiric function in the various areas of music. Some have ventured that this is a return of the organ to the organist. It could also be considered an invitation to a considerable investigation by the music-maker, as organist or as composer.