click on images to enlarge Chickering Hall 437 Fifth Avenue, northwest corner of 18th Street New York, N.Y. 10011   Chickering Hall, considered one of the finest designs by architect George B. Post (1837-1913), was located on Fifth Avenue in the entertainment district around Union Square. The four-story building was faced with red brick and trimmed in brownstone and gray marble. It was erected by Chickering & Sons to house a music store, warehouse and concert hall. The 1,450-seat Chickering Hall, which opened on Monday evening, November 15th, 1875, occupied the second and third floor space. In addition to musical concerts, Chickering Hall programs included lectures by Oscar Wilde and Thomas H. Huxley, operas, religious conferences, and even the first interstate telephone call—made by Alexander Graham Bell in 1877—to New Brunswick, New Jersey. Chickering Hall's popularity lasted less than two decades, since many smaller events formerly held in Chickering Hall had been moved to the new Waldorf=Astoria Hotel, and popular concert entertainment had found a new home at Carnegie Hall. Moreover, the 25-year lease on the property could not be renewed, so a move would be necessary. Chickering & Sons transferred the agency for city piano sales to the John Wanamaker stores, and by 1893 the building had been completely transformed to retail space. In 1901, the building was sold, to be razed and replaced by a store and loft building.     Hilborne L. Roosevelt New York City – Opus 25 (1876) Electric-pneumatic action 3 manuals, 33 stops, 36 ranks The Roosevelt organ in Chickering Hall was completed in January of 1876 and cost $15,000. Installed on each side of the stage, the organ was operated by electricity, with pneumatic assistance provided for the Great and its couplers. The Echo organ was located in the roof, where, according to an article in Dwight's, "The tones will fall DOWN with a gently weird and dreamy lovliness." Roosevelt's brochure states that, "The Vox Humana is an exact copy of the celebrated one in the Freiburg Organ, drawings and measurements having been taken from the original by the builder." Roosevelt distinguished between the "church organ" and "concert organ," expounding in The Roosevelt Organ Journal (July 1876): "The solemnity, heaviness, and grandeur which we expect in the foundation stops of a large church organ, are not needed here; instead of them we find a remarkable variety of brilliant and carefully voiced solo stops, a close imitation of orchestral effects, and withal a solid and clear bass. The clearness of all the stops indeed is one of the marked merits of the instrument. The reeds, for which Mr. Roosevelt's organs have always been noted, are of the finished French-school." The organ was first exhibited to an audience of invited guests on Friday evening, January 21, 1876. Performing were organists George W. Morgan, S. B. Whitely, George and William Warren, S. Austen Pearce, and Dudley Buck.   Great (Manual II) – 58 notes (C-a3) 16   Open Diapason 58 4   Principal 58 8   Open Diapason 58 2 2/3   Twelfth 58 8   Gamba 58 2   Fifteenth 58 8   Doppel Flute 58     Mixture IV 232 4   Harmonic Flute 58 8   Trumpet 58           Swell (Manual III) – 58 notes (C-a3), enclosed 16   Bourdon 58   Cornet III 174 8   Violin Diapason 58 8   Oboe 58 8   Dolce 58 8   Cornopean 58 8   Stopped Diapason 58   Tremulant 4   Violana [sic] 58                 Solo (Manual I) – 58 notes (C-a3) 8   Keraulophon 58 2   Piccolo 58 8   Concert Flute 58 8   Clarionette 58 4   Wald Flöte 58           Echo (playable from the Swell) – 58 notes (C-a3) 8   Vox Humana 58 8   Salicional 58 8   Stopped Diapason 58   Tremulant                   Pedal – 29 notes (CC-e) 16   Double Open Diapason 29 8   Violoncello 29 16   Contrebass 29 16   Trombone 29 16   Bourdon 29                         Couplers and Mechanical Accessories     Swell to Great       Balanced Swell Pedal       Swell to Great Octaves       Bellows Alarm (electric)       Swell to Solo       Great Organ Forte       Great to Pedal       Great Organ Piano       Swell to Pedal       Swell Organ Forte       Solo to Pedal       Swell Organ Piano                     Sources:      Blanchard, Homer D. "The Organ in the United States: A Study in Design", an article in The Bicentennial Tracker. Richmond: Organ Historical Society, Inc., 1976.      "Chickering Hall Sold," The New York Times, Dec. 4, 1901.      "Chickering Hall to Disappear," Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Dec. 8, 1901.      "Chickering's New Concert Hall," Dwight's, XXXV:16 (Nov. 27, 1875), p. 131.      "Chickering's New Move," The New York Times, Oct. 31, 1894.      Ochse, Orpha. The History of the Organ in the United States. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1975.      Ogasapian, John. Organ Building in New York City: 1700-1900. Braintree: The Organ Literature Foundation, 1977.      "The Organ at Chickering Hall," The New York Times, Jan. 22, 1876.      "A Perfect Music Hall: Chickering's New Temple of Music Almost Completed—Description of the Structure," The New York Times, Nov. 14, 1875.      Stern, Robert A.M., Thomas Mellins, and David Fishman. New York 1880: Architecture and Urbanism in the Gilden Age. 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