click on images to enlarge St. George Episcopal Church 800 Marcy Avenue at Gates Avenue Brooklyn, N.Y. 11216 http://www.stgeorgeschurch-bedstuy.org/ Organ Specifications: 800 Marcy Avenue at Gates Avenue (since 1888): • Saville Organ Company electronic (1972) • Midmer-Light (>1918); reb. & elec. of Hillgreen, Lane ► II/26 Hillgreen, Lane & Company, Op. 12 (1900) • II/25 Hook & Hastings, Op. 1360 (1887) – burned 1900 Greene Avenue (1870-1888): • unknown Monroe and Marcy Avenues (1869-1870): • unknown St. George's Protestant Episcopal Church was founded by a Mr. Guion, who conducted services in a small frame building on Clifton Place near Marcy Avenue. This building was originally a Methodist Chapel, but by the time Mr. Guion began his work it had become a school and was used during the week as a carpenter shop. In this place a very small congregation met weekly from the Spring of 1869 until the Fall of the same year. In October 1869, the church was formally organized. Then a mission Sunday-school building on the corner of Monroe and Marcy Avenues was obtained, rent free, not three hundred feet from the present church.  Here the congregation worshiped until the basement of their new church was ready for occupancy.  The second church building in the history of the parish was located on Greene Avenue between Marcy Avenue and Tompkins Avenue. With a great deal of fanfare the parish took possession of that church and held its first service there on February 27, 1870, only four months after the cornerstone was laid, but the church was not fully completed until October 1871. An application was made for admission to union with the newly formed (1869) Diocese of Long Island in 1873.  This raised the question of the church's name. The original name of St. Thomas had been changed in the early days of the parish to Guion Church, in honor of its founder. Exception was taken to this name, as it was contrary to the usages of the church. Upon appeal to the Supreme Court, the name of Guion Church was changed to St. George's Church of the City of Brooklyn, its present name.  By 1885, the parish had outgrown the its second building and funds were raised to construct a larger church. Plans were drawn by Richard Michell Upjohn (son of nationally-prominent Richard Upjohn) in the Fall of 1886, and on June 24, 1887, the Bishop of Long Island laid the cornerstone of a new church that would occupy an 80-by-112-foot site at the southwest corner of Gates and Marcy Avenues. Upjohn designed the new church in the High Victorian Gothic style, using a Ruskinian Gothic design rendered in a checkerboard of red brick trimmed with stone. An entrance porch with stout stone columns faces Marcy Avenue, and next to the porch is an octagonal tower that serves as a chimney. The nave has a steeply-pitched roof of slate, and on either side are aisles covered with roofs having a shallower pitch. The church was opened for worship on January 13, 1888. After the completion of the church, Upjohn designed a parish house that was built in 1889 and ready for use in 1890. In January 1900, the church was gutted by a three-alarm fire, fanned by the interior of Georgia pine and Christmas decorations of evergreen and holly that had not yet been taken down. While the church was rebuilt, the congregation met in the Sunday-school room of nearby Marcy Avenue Baptist Church. Further improvements were made to the buildings from 1900-1906.  With the coming of the years of the First World War, there was a gradual demographic change in the neighborhood which began to manifest itself in the life of the church. Upon the persuasion of the Rector and the Bishop, it was decided to open the doors of the church to all and make it really a church for all people. St. George's Episcopal Church was designated by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in January 1977.               Saville Organ Company Chicago, Ill. (1972) Analog tonal production 67 stops In the Spring of 1972, the pipe organ ceased to function and was replaced by a Saville Organ having 67 stops, at the time considered to be the finest in electronic equipment. Specifications of this organ have not yet been located.               Midmer-Light Long Island, N.Y. (>1918) Electro-pneumatic action 2 manuals? Sometime after 1918, the Midmer-Light Company rebuilt and electrified the 1900 Hillgreen, Lane organ. Specifications of this organ have not yet been located.               Hillgreen, Lane and Company Alliance, Ohio – Opus 12 (1900) Tubular-pneumatic action 2 manuals, 24 stops, 26 ranks The contract dated May 24, 1900 between Hillgreen, Lane and Company and St. George's Church shows that this organ was built at a cost of $3,345. In the photo at the right, the organ can be seen on the left side of the chancel.                 Great Organ (Manual I) – 61 notes 8   Open Diapason 61 4   Flute d'Amour 61 8   Viol di Gamba 61 2 2/3   Twelfth 61 8   Melodia 61 2   Fifteenth 61 8   Dulciana 61 8   Trumpet 61 4   Principal 61                 Swell Organ (Manual II) – 61 notes, enclosed 16   Bourdon Bass    } 12 4   Flute Harmonic 61 16   Bourdon Treble } split knob 49 4   Fugara 61 8   Open Diapason 61 2   Piccolo 61 8   Stopped Diapason 61   Dolce Cornet, 3 ranks 183 8   Salicional 61 8   Oboe & Bassoon 61 8   Vox Celeste 61   Swell Tremulant [piston knob] 8   Aeoline 61                 Pedal Organ – 30 notes 16   Double Open Diapason 30 8   Violoncello 30 16   Bourdon 30 8   Flute 30                 Couplers & Mechanicals     Swell to Great Coupler     Bellows Signal     Swell to Pedal Coupler     Wind Indicator     Great to Pedal Coupler     Crescendo Dial     Superoctave Swell to Great Coupler     Crank for Motor           Pedal Check                 Combination Piston Buttons (each drawing an appropriate Pedal support.)     Great Organ Forte     Swell Organ Forte     Great Organ Mezzo     Swell Organ Mezzo     Great Organ Piano     Swell Organ Piano                 Pedal Movements     Great to Pedal Reversible         Crescendo, Decrescendo and Full Organ Pedal     Balanced Swell Pedal                   Original organ in present church: Hook & Hastings Company Boston, Mass. – Opus 1360 (1887) Mechanical action 2 manuals, 25 stops The original organ in the present building was built in 1887 by the Hook & Hastings Company of Boston. On January 13, 1900, a fire destroyed the organ and the church interior. Specifications of this organ have not yet been located.               Sources:      "Brooklyn Church Burned," The New York Times, January 7, 1900.      Dolkart, Andrew S. and Matthew A. Postal. Guide to New York City Landmarks (Third Edition). New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2004.      Morrone, Francis. An Architectural Guidebook to Brooklyn. Brooklyn: Gibbs Smith, 2001.      Nelson, George. Organs in the United States and Canada Database. Seattle, Wash.      St. George Episcopal Church website: http://www.stgeorgeschurch-bedstuy.org/      Stern, Robert A.M., Thomas Mellins, and David Fishman. New York 1880: Architecture and Urbanism in the Gilded Age. New York City: The Monacelli Press, 1999.      Trupiano, Larry. Factory Specifications of Hillgreen, Lane & Company Organ, Op. 12 (1900). Photos:      Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Brooklyn Public Library, Brooklyn Collection: interior (1906); exterior (1909).               | NYC AGO Home Page | Back to NYC Organ Project List |