| |
 |
| |
Click on images to enlarge. |
St. Luke's Hospital
113th Street at Amsterdam Avenue
New York, N.Y.
10025
Muhlenberg Chapel
 |
|
St. Luke's Hospital on Fifth Avenue |
|
William Augustus Muhlenberg, the rector of the Church of the Holy Communion, proposed an Episcopal hospital that would serve the city's poor without regard to their religious affiliation. The first patients were housed at the church, located on Sixth Avenue and 20th Street, until a site could be located for a hospital building. By the next year, a large plot on Fifth Avenue, between 54th and 55th Streets was purchased. Only a few blocks away was the land on which the Roman Catholic Cathedral of St. Patrick would be built, and also the area to which Columbia College would soon relocate. The hospital was a red brick, rectangular structure in the Early Romanesque Revival style, and included wings at each end. Twin towers flanked the central pavillion which contained a chapel. When the hospital opened in 1858, 54th Street was on the northern edge of town, but within a few years the area had been transformed with palatial mansions and prestigious churches. By 1885, the austere building to serve the poor seemed incongruous, and it had become medically obsolete. A committee was formed to seek a less congested area farther uptown.
| |
 |
| |
The Cathedral and St. Luke's Hospital
on Morningside Heights (1910) |
In 1887, the decision was made to build the Cathedral of St. John the Divine on Morningside Heights, with the hope that other institutions would relocate there to form a community to serve the spirit, body and mind. In 1892, land in Morningside Heights was purchased by three more institutions: St. Luke's Hospital, Columbia College, and Teachers College. The hospital would build on land immediately north of the cathedral, a location that would guarantee uninterrupted light and fresh air. The Building Committee held a design competition in which five well-known architects were paid $400 each to create proposals, while others could also submit designs, but without renumeration. The winner was the French Renaissance proposal of Ernest Flagg, who was related by marriage to Cornelius Vanderbilt II, chair of the hospital's executive committee. Vanderbilt had financed Flagg's European studies and considered him to be a surrogate son. Flagg was an inexperienced architect who had studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris but had not actually built anything to date. Flagg's winning design called for a central administration building capped with a prominent dome, with four pavillions on each side. All of the buildings would be faced in brick and stone. After delays in construction, patients were transferred to the new hospital in January 1896.
The chapel
is in a separate wing behind the administration building, and is modeled after seventeenth-century chapels found in French châteaus. Behind the altar is a large stained glass window on the theme of Christ the Consoler, surmounted by roundrels representing the Seven Acts of Mercy. Henry Holiday, the English stained-glass artist, designed and executed the window. Named in honor of the Rev. William A. Muhlenberg, the vaulted chapel interior is the most spectacular in the hospital, and is one of the great late nineteenth-century religious spaces in the city. |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
M. P. Möller, Inc.
Hagerstown, Md. – Opus 9517 (1961)
Electro-pneumatic action
2 manuals, 16 stops, 12 ranks
In 1961, M.P. Möller built a new organ for the chapel. The two-manual instrument has 12 ranks and occupies the space where the previous organs by Hutchings and Skinner were installed. Möller removed the Hutchings case in favor of exposed pipes of the Great division. |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Great Organ (Manual I) – 61 notes
|
8 |
|
Rohrflöte |
61 |
|
|
Great Unison Off |
|
4 |
|
Principal |
61 |
|
|
Swell to Great 16' |
|
2 2/3 |
|
Nasat |
61 |
|
|
Swell I to Great |
|
2 |
|
Octavin |
61 |
|
|
Swell II to Great |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Swell I Organ (Manual II) – 61 notes, enclosed
|
8 |
|
Holzgedeckt |
61 |
|
|
Tremolo |
|
4 |
|
Nachthorn |
61 |
|
|
Swell I Unison Off |
|
|
|
Plein Jeu II ranks |
122 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Swell II Organ (Manual II) – 61 notes, enclosed
|
8 |
|
Gemshorn |
61 |
|
|
Tremolo |
|
8 |
|
Gemshorn Celeste [TC] |
49 |
|
|
Swell II Unison Off |
|
8 |
|
Fagot |
61 |
|
|
Great to Swell |
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Pedal Organ – 32 notes
|
16 |
|
Rohrflöte [ext. GT] |
12 |
|
|
Great to Pedal 8' |
|
16 |
|
Gemshorn [ext. SW II] |
12 |
|
|
Swell I to Pedal 8', 4' |
|
8 |
|
Spitz Principal |
32 |
|
|
Swell II to Pedal 8', 4' |
|
8 |
|
Rohrflöte |
GT |
|
|
|
|
8 |
|
Gemshorn |
SW II |
|
|
|
|
4 |
|
Octave [ext. Spitz Princ.] |
12 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Skinner Organ Company
Boston, Mass. – Opus 301 (1920)
Electro-pneumatic action
2 manuals, 8 ranks, 470 pipes
The 1920, the Skinner Organ Company installed a new organ, retaining the Pedal and case of the 1895 Hutchings organ. According to the book, E.M.Skinner/Aeolian-Skinner Opus List, this organ had eight ranks and 471 pipes. Pipe counts below are estimated but add up to 470 pipes. |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Great Organ (Manual I) – 61 notes
|
8 |
|
Diapason |
61 |
4 |
|
Flute |
SW |
8 |
|
Gedeckt |
SW |
8 |
|
Flugel Horn |
SW |
8 |
|
Aeoline |
SW |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Swell Organ (Manual II) – 61 notes, enclosed
|
16 |
|
Bourdon |
85 |
8 |
|
Aeoline |
73 |
8 |
|
Gedeckt [Bourdon] |
— |
4 |
|
Flute [Bourdon] |
— |
8 |
|
Salicional |
73 |
8 |
|
Flugel Horn |
73 |
8 |
|
Voix Celeste [TC] |
61 |
|
|
Tremolo |
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Pedal Organ – 32 notes
|
16 |
|
1st Bourdon |
44 |
8 |
|
Octave [1st Bourdon] |
— |
16 |
|
2nd Bourdon |
SW |
8 |
|
Gedeckt |
SW |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Geo. S. Hutchings
Boston, Mass. – Opus 381 (1895)
Tubular-pneumatic action
2 manuals, 23 stops, 22 ranks
The original organ in the present chapel was built in 1895 by George S. Hutchings of Boston. Hutchings' two-manual organ employed tubular-pneumatic action. Compasses and pipe counts are estimated, based on other Hutchings organs of that time. |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Great Organ (Manual I) – 61 notes
|
8 |
|
Open Diapason |
61 |
4 |
|
Flute Harmonique |
61 |
8 |
|
Viola di Gamba |
61 |
2 2/3 |
|
Octave Quint |
61 |
8 |
|
Doppel Flute |
61 |
2 |
|
Super Octave |
61 |
4 |
|
Octave |
61 |
8 |
|
Trumpet |
61 |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Swell Organ (Manual II) – 61 notes, enclosed
|
16 |
|
Bourdon |
61 |
4 |
|
Fugara |
61 |
8 |
|
Open Diapason |
61 |
4 |
|
Flute d'Amour |
61 |
8 |
|
Gemshorn |
61 |
2 |
|
Flautina |
61 |
8 |
|
Salicional |
61 |
8 |
|
Cornopean |
61 |
8 |
|
Vox Celeste [TC] |
49 |
8 |
|
Oboe |
61 |
8 |
|
Stopped Diapason |
61 |
|
|
Tremulant |
|
4 |
|
Octave |
61 |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Pedal Organ – 32 notes
|
16 |
|
Open Diapason |
32 |
8 |
|
Flute [ext.] |
12 |
16 |
|
Bourdon |
32 |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Couplers
|
| |
|
Swell to Pedal |
|
|
|
Swell to Great 8', 4' |
|
| |
|
Great to Pedal |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Organ in chapel of St. Luke's Hospital on Fifth Avenue at 54th Street:
Hall & Labagh
New York City (1885)
Mechanical action
Specifications for this organ have not yet been located. |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
Sources:
Aeolian-Skinner Archives: http://home.cfl.rr.com/aeolianskinner/
Dolkart, Andrew S. Morningside Heights: A History of Its Architecture & Developments. New York: Columbia University Press, 1998.
Dunlap, David W. From Abyssinian to Zion: A Guide to Manhattan's Houses of Worship. New York: Columbia University Press, 2004.
Kinzey, Allen, and Sand Lawn, comps. E.M. Skinner/Aeolian-Skinner Opus List. New Rev. Ed. Richmond: The Organ Historical Society, 1997.
Lewis, Jim. Specifications of Geo. S. Hutchings Organ, Op. 381 (1895).
Nelson, George. Organs in the United States and Canada Database. Seattle, Wash.
Photos:
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Online: Cathedral of St. John the Divine and St. Luke's Hospital (1910).
Lawson, Steven E. Color chapel interior.
Lewis, Jim. Photo of Geo. S. Hutchings Organ, Op. 381 (1895).
St. Luke's Hospital Archives: chapel interior. |
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
| NYC AGO Home Page | Back to NYC Organ Project List | |
