Note: Not extant. Not playable. (in this location)
2005-06-16 - Identified through information in <i>Descriptive Catalogue of Superior Church Organs Manufactured by Geo. H. Ryder & Co.</i>, published in Boston, January, 1896. Dates are not included in the publication; the one given here is conjectural. -Database Manager
2023-04-18 - Ryder performed a major rebuilding and enlargement of the 1849 Hook. Given the wealth of the city and its number of up to date instruments, it is surprising Christ Church took so long. The documented changes were the expansion of the Swell to full compass, the enlargement of the pedal, and the enlargement of the case to accommodate the expansive additions. Without confirmation of additional details, based on the design parameters of the typical G-compass Hook of its era, with a short-compass Swell and certain Great stops also of short compass, typically a single-stop pedal of limited compass, no combinations, and a recessed keydesk with vertical stop jambs and non-overhanging keyboards, it is easy to imagine the basic changes a builder in the 1890s might envision to update an instrument considered so old-fashioned by the standards of the day. Not long afterwards, the organ was electrified by the Hall Organ Co. with pneumatic pull-down machines. The organ was replaced by a succession of imitation organs beginning in 1972, at which point the surviving Hook pipework and Great chest were salvaged by local builder Richard Hamar, and this material was eventually recycled into a new instrument made from old parts by Jeremy Cooper for Our Lady of the Good Voyage in Gloucester, Mass. At the point the pipework was removed, [except for the 1849 Hook facade pipes], the case depth was cut in half to accommodate the relocation of the imitation organ console and choir seating back to the right transept organ gallery. A victim of gross mismanagement, the church closed in 2021. -Scot Huntington
Quoted from "The Churchman" Jan. 27, 1894 Source: Found in annotated opus list by the Boston Organ Club 1995
Norwich, Connecticut
Christ Church
Geo. H. Ryder (No. 175, 1893)
Compasses: 58/27
GREAT [original G-compass chest reused]
8' Open Diapason
8' Stopped Diapason
8' Melodia
8' Dulciana
4' Octave
4' Flute
2 2/3' Twelfth
2' Fifteenth
4 rks. Mixture
8' Trumpet
8' Cremona
SWELL [enclosed, new chest]
16' Bourdon
8' Open Diapason
8' Stopped Diapason
8' Gamba
4' Octave
4' Night Horn
2 2/3' Twelfth
2' Fifteenth
Mixture
8' Trumpet
8' Oboe
PEDAL
16' Open Diapason
16' Bourdon
MECHANICALS
"Usual Couplers and mechanicals" which would be:
Swell to Great
Great to Pedal
Swell to Pedal
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