YMCA Headquarters (built 1869) in unidentified drawing
 
YMCA Headquarters (1869)
The Young Men's Christian Association (Y.M.C.A.)

Southwest corner Fourth Avenue and East 23rd Street
New York, N.Y. 10011




The Young Men's Christian Association was organized in 1852 to help develop the social, spiritual, social and physical well-being of young men. A merchant philanthropist, William E. Dodge, Jr.; financier J. P. Morgan; and a young immigrant, Robert Ross McBurney, were among the founders.

The YMCA's headquarters, located on the corner of Fourth Avenue and East 23rd Street, was a four-story, French Second Empire-style building (with an inhabited mansard) designed by Renwick & Sands. Included in the building were reception rooms, reading rooms, parlors and dressing rooms. There was a two-story, 1,640-seat lecture room, as well as smaller lecture rooms, a 12,000-volume, triple-height library, gymnasium, bowling alleys, baths, a concert hall, artist studios, and a gallery. Louis Comfort Tiffany was an early tenant, renting his first studio in the building. The building was opened for a private view, by donors and a few invited friends, on November 29, 1869; the formal opening took place the following Thursday evening. Total cost of the building and land was reported to be $487,000.
           
  J.H. & C.S. Odell Organ, Op. 82 (1869) in Auditorium of YMCA - 23rd St/Fourth Av, New York City
  Kautz Family YMCA Archives
  J.H. & C.S. Odell Organ, Op. 82 (1869) in Auditorium of YMCA - 23rd St/Fourth Av, New York City
  Undated stereoscope image
J. H. & C. S. Odell & Company
New York City – Opus 82 (1869)
Mechanical key and stop action
2 manuals, 31 stops, 35 ranks



For their new headquarters building, the YMCA directors selected J.H. & C.S. Odell of New York to build an organ for the lecture room. The substantial two-manual instrument was installed in a case at the left of the platform. A private exhibition of the organ was given on Monday, November 1, 1869, as described in The New York Times (Nov. 3, 1869):
"The organ was built at a cost of about $10,000, and combines many features not to be found in the instruments of any other makers, such as the kettle-drum, beating the long roll with wonderful accuracy; the base [sic] drum, cymbals and a chime of bells. The peculiar beauty of the instrument, if we may be permitted to single out any one feature where all is good, lies in its vox humana and flute stops, which, for richness and deceptive similarity to the instruments from which they derive their name, rank among the best of their kind."
A standing capacity audience was present on November 30, 1869, when the hall and organ were formally opened. The programme included selections by organists Henry Eyre Brown, William Berge, and George W. Morgan; a piano solo was offered by Richard Hoffman; and vocal selections were heard in solo and combination by Signor G. Ronconi, Miss Nettie Sterling, Miss Clara Louise Kellogg, and William J. Hill.
               
Great Organ (Manual I) – 61 notes
16
   Tenoroon
61
2 2/3
   Twelfth
61
8
   Open Diapason
61
2
  Fifteenth
61
8
   Keraulophon
61
     Sesquialtera III ranks
183
8
   Dulce
61
8
  Trumpet
61
8
   Clarionet Flute
61
8
  Cremona
61
4
   Principal
61
4
   Clarion
61
4
   Flute Harmonique
61
    
Chime of Bells
37 bells
4
   Meliphon
61
        
       
 
     
Swell Organ (Manual II) – 61 notes, enclosed
16
   Bourdon
61
4
  Flute à Chiminu [sic]
61
8
   Open Diapason
61
2
   Piccolo
61
8
   Viol de Gamba
61
     Cornet III ranks
183
8
   Dulciana
61
8
  Cornopean
61
8
   Stopped Diapason
61
8
  Oboe
61
4
   Violina
61
8
   Vox Humana
61
       
 
     
Pedal Organ – 27 notes
16
   Grand Double Open Diapason
27
     Bass Drum  
16
   Grand Bourdon
27
     Storm or Military Drum  
10 2/3
  Quint
27
     Cymbals  
8
   Violoncello
27
        
16
   Trombone
27
        
               
Couplers &c
    Swell to Great Unison   Swell to Great Unison Reversible
    Swell to Great Superoctave   Swell to Great Superoctave Revers.
    Swell to Pedal   Great to Pedal Reversible
    Great to Pedal   Tremulant
    Bass Drum to Pedal   Piuviale, or storm apparatus
    Snare Drum to Pedal    
               
Pneumatic Compositions on Great Organ (Patented)
1.
   Full Great Organ
2.
   Full to Sesquialtera
3.
   Full to Principal
4.
   All of the eight feet stops
5.
   Keraulophon, Clarionet Flute & Meliphon
6.
   Clarionet Flute and Dulce
7.
   Flute Harmonic
8.
   Meliphon
               
Pneumatic Compositions on Swell Organ (Patented)
1.
   Full Swell Organ
2.
   Full to Cornet
3.
   Full to Principal
4.
   All of the eight feet stops
5.
   Viol de Gamba, Stopped Diapason and Flute à Chimanu
6.
   Oboe, Stopped Diapason and Dulciana
               
Pedal Movements
    [Swell Pedal]      
    Grand Crescendo and Diminuendo Pedal (Patented)  
           
Sources:
     Blanchard, Homer D. "The Organ in the United States: A Study in Design," with stoplist of J.H. & C.S. Odell Organ, Op. 82 (1869). The Bicentennial Tracker. Richmond: Organ Historical Society, Inc., 1976.
     "The New Building of the Young Men's Christian Association," The New York Times (Nov. 30, 1869, p.5).
     Opening of the Organ programme (Nov. 30, 1869), including specifications of J.H. & C.S. Odell Organ, Op. 82 (1869). The Samuel P. Warren Collection, Library of Congress. Courtesy James Lewis.
     "Private Exhibition of the New Organ at the Young Men's Christian Association Rooms," The New York Times (Nov. 3, 1869, p.2).
     "Y.M.C.A. Opening of the New Hall of the Young Men's Christian Association—Grand Concert," The New York Times (Dec. 1, 1869, p.5). Includes specifications of J.H. & C.S. Odell Organ, Op. 82 (1869).
     Stern, Robert A. M., Thomas Mellins, and David Fishman. New York 1880: Architecture and Urbanism in the Gilded Age. New York: The Monacelli Press, 1999.
     Young Men's Christian Association web site: http://www.ymcanyc.org

Illustrations:
     The Bay State Monthly, Volume I. No. VI. June, 1884. A Massachusetts Magazine. Pen and ink drawing from Project Gutenberg Online Catalog: www.gutenberg.org.
     Kautz Family YMCA Archives, University of Minnesota Libraries; Ryan Bean, Archivist. Interior of Lecture Hall showing J.H. & C.S. Odell Organ, Op. 82 (1869). Courtesy James Lewis.
     Undated stereoscope image (headon) of J.H. & C.S. Odell Organ, Op. 82 (1869). Courtesy Larry Trupiano.