BLOOMING GROVE UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST - … Grove United Church of Christ 8 Old Dominion Road...
Transcript of BLOOMING GROVE UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST - … Grove United Church of Christ 8 Old Dominion Road...
Blooming Grove United Church of Christ
8 Old Dominion Road
Blooming Grove, NY 10914
Specification prepared by Joseph Bertolozzi January, 2010
Photography and other information supplied by Jan Kohler
Hook & Hastings, 1901, Op. 1937, II/14
Two manuals of 61 notes
Pedalboard of 27 notes
Tracker action
824 pipes originally, now 836; see Swell Oboe/Bassoon
The manual keys are ivory-covered, pedal keys of walnut and maple. The casework is quarter-sawn
white oak, with mahogany stop jambs and key cheeks.
GREAT (right jamb)
Open Diapason 8'
Melodia 8’
Dulciana 8'
Principal 4'
Fifteenth 2’
SWELL (left jamb)
Open Diapason 8'
Salicional 8’
Voix Celeste 8’
Stop’d Diapason 8'
Gemshorn 4’
Flute Harmonique 4'
Oboe/Bassoon 8'
Tremolo
NOTE :
The Oboe/Bassoon is taken from the Hook & Hastings Opus 1935, replacing the original Opus 1937
T.C. Oboe. It was added in the spring of 1980 or 1981 by the A & J Pipe and Reed Organ Company of
Newburgh, NY. Robert Seely of Circleville, NY made the mechanism for the Bassoon slider to open and
close, with a minimum of movement, less than 1.5 inches.
PEDAL Bourdon 16'
Violoncello 8'
Expression:
Balanced Swell Pedal
MECHANICALS
COUPLERS
Swell to Great
Swell to Pedal
Great to Pedal
Gt. to Ped. Reversible
REGISTRATIONAL FOOT LEVERS
Gt. Piano
Gt. Forte
Right Jamb stop knob, middle row
Great division
Open Diapason 8'
Left Jamb stop knob, middle row
Swell division
Oboe 8’, Bassoon 8’, Gemshorn 4’,
Flute Harmonique 4’
Left Jamb stop knobs, bottom row
Pedal division & pedal couplers
Right Jamb stop knobs, bottom row
Manual coupler and tremolo
Left Jamb stop knob, top row
Swell division
Open Diapason 8', Salicional 8’, Voix Celeste 8’
Stop’d Diapason 8'
Right Jamb stop knob, top row
Great division
Fifteenth 2’, Principal 4', Melodia 8’, Dulciana 8'
SOME ORGAN AND CHURCH HISTORY
Sanctuary from around 1890 (organ installed in 1902)
Sanctuary from 2006
The following history is condensed from the church’s website as well as a concert program provided
by Jan Kohler from their 250th
anniversary celebration featuring West Point organist Craig
Williams, a 1980 account appearing in the local newspapers by Phyllis Hunter, a member of the
church, and The Whistlebox, the newsletter of the Mid Hudson Chapter of the Organ Historical
Society, Vol. III , No. 1, January 1981.
In 1902 church member and the railroad magnate David Moffat Jr. presented a pipe organ to the
Blooming Grove church in memory of his father, the long-time choirmaster who in his time used a
tuning fork to obtain the proper pitch. Before Moffat’s gift, the congregation also used a reed organ built
by the Mason & Hamlin Organ Company of Boston.
The donation aroused substantial controversy because to accommodate the pipe organ, the pulpit
platform was moved forward and the choir balcony was removed. One member took the matter to court
because his pew would have to be dismantled (In the fashion of the time, each pew was bought by and
individual or a family, making each pew owner a partial owner of the church with a title to the pew). He
later withdrew the lawsuit. The sanctuary today retains many of its original features despite the
renovation to accommodate the pipe organ in 1902.
When the church building was built in 1823 slavery was still legal in New York, and the building
committee directed the builders to include galleries to either side of the pulpit for slaves and other
people of color; the center section with the railing was for the choir. The segregated seating, or "slave
galleries," long since disused, remained to either side.
The "slave gallery" to the right of the pulpit.
The Blooming Grove United Church of Christ began around 1758 as a Presbyterian church. In 1758 the
church purchased a tract of land and built its first meetinghouse in 1759. The approximate site of the
first meetinghouse is known but nothing remains of the building except for some fragments of interior
woodwork.
In 1823 the church had grown to the point that it needed a new building. Rather than enlarge the
existing meetinghouse the congregation sold the original building which was torn down, and erected the
present building.
An early photograph of the church ca. 1870 showing the horse sheds to the left.
A LIST OF THE ORGANISTS OF THE BLOOMING GROVE CHURCH
1903 (Mrs.) Rogers
ca. 1903-1915 Unknown
ca. 1915-1938 Jane Durland Sears ca. 1938-1940 Janet Bate
1940-1982 Clara Johnson 1983 Alan Carrick
1983-1985 Jeffrey Stein 1985-1987 Marian Wheeler
1988 Jeffrey Stein 1988 Janet Steeves
1989-1996 Linda Bierling
1996 Bernice Fowler 1996-present Janiece Kohler
A LIST OF THOSE WHO PUMPED THE ORGAN DOESN’T EXIST!
Organ hand pump handle