Better Pipe Organ Database

Holtkamp Organ Co. Opus 1712 (1958)

General Theological Seminary: Chapel
175 Ninth Avenue at 20th Street
New York City: Manhattan, NY

Images

2002-09-09 - Chapel chancel and exposed pipes (Photograph by John Rust via the NYC AGO NYC Organ Project/Database Manager)

2002-09-09 - Console (Photograph by John Rust via the NYC AGO NYC Organ Project/Database Manager)

2002-09-09 - Exposed pipes (Photograph by John Rust via the NYC AGO NYC Organ Project/Database Manager)

2002-09-09 - Rood screen and exposed pipes (Photograph by John Rust via the NYC AGO NYC Organ Project/Database Manager)

2002-09-09 - Chapel Exterior (Photograph by John Rust via the NYC AGO NYC Organ Project/Database Manager)

Consoles

Main

Organ type: Non-Traditional Style, As Consoles by Holtkamp, Schlicker, et al
Console position: Movable Console
3 manuals
39 stops
4 divisions
Key action Type: Electrical
Stop action Type: Electrical
Stop layout Type: Stop Keys Above Top Manual
Manual compass: 61 notes
Pedal compass: 32 notes
Pedal Type: Concave Radiating (Meeting AGO Standards)
Expression Type: Balanced Expression Shoes/Pedals (Meeting AGO Standards)
Combination action: Adjustable Combination Pistons
Has combination thumb pistons
Has combination toe pistons
Has coupler thumb pistons
Has coupler toe pistons
Has tutti toe pistons

Notes

2008-12-24 - Identified through information published in John Ferguson's <i>Walter Holtkamp: American Organ Builder</i> (DMA treatise, Eastman School of Music, 1976). Although neither Votteler-Holtkamp-Sparling nor their successor Holtkamp Organ Co. assigned Opus numbers to their instruments, this organ was identified in factory documents as Job number 1712. That number appears here as the Opus number of this instrument. -Database Manager

2010-10-29 - Updated through online information from Steve Lawson. -Database Manager

2019-12-03 - From the NYC AGO NYC Organ Project: Chartered by the Episcopal Church in 1817, the General Theological Seminary was built with the support of Trinity Church, most notably Vestryman Jacob Sherred, and Clement Clarke Moore, best known for penning "Twas the night before Christmas." Moore offered 60 lots of his rural Chelesa estate on the condition that a seminary be built there. An East Building was the first to open in 1827, followed by a West Building erected in 1836. The Rev. Eugene Augustus Hoffman, who graduated from General in 1851, became its first dean in 1879. Hoffman endowed the chair of pastoral theology with $80,000, and on the death of his father, Samuel Yerplanek Hoffman, his mother contributed $125,000 for the building of the Chapel of the Good Shepherd as a memorial to her husband. The Chapel of the Good Shepherd was designed by Charles Coolidge Haight in the collegiate-Gothic style, and was built between 1886-88 as the centerpiece of the seminary. Haight's father, the Rev. Benjamin I. Haight, was the first rector of St. Peter's Church, located a block away on West 20th Street. The chapel's tower contains a set of 15 tubular chimes, manufactured in 1922 by the Walter H. Durfee Company of Providence, R.I. The seminary's Guild of Chimers ring the chimes mechanically each morning and evening. -Database Manager

Stoplist

Source: Stoplist from the NYC AGO New York City Organ Project Date not recorded

       New York, New YOrk
       General Theological Seminary
       Chapel of the Good Shepherd

       Holtkamp   Job 1712   1958   3/51
       _________________________________________

       GREAT                    SWELL

   16' Quintadena  61        8' Rohrflöte     61
    8' Principal   61        8' Gambe         61
    8' Gedackt     61        8' Voix Celeste  56 *
    4' Octave      61        4' Gemshorn      61
    4' Spitzflöte  61        4' Flute         61
    2' Doublette   61        2' Piccolo       61
1 1/3' Quinte      61       IV  Plein Jeu    244
   IV  Mixture    244      III  Cymbal       183
    8' Trumpet     61       16' Dulzian       61
                             8' Oboe          61
       PEDAL                 4' Clarion       61

   32' Resultant   --           POSITIV
   16' Principal   32
   16' Sub Bass    32        8' Copula        56
   16' Quintadena  GT        4' Praestant     56
    8' Octave      32        4' Rohrflöte     56
    8' Gedackt     32    2 2/3' Nazard        56
    4' Choralbass  32        2' Octave        56
    4' Flute       32        2' Blockflöte    56
  III  Mixture     96    1 3/5' Tierce        56
   16' Posaune     32      III  Fourniture   168
   16' Dulzian     SW        8' Cromorne      56
    8' Trumpet     32           Tremolo
    4' Schalmey    32

    *  added 1996

   [Received from Jeff Scofield December 3, 2019]

Websites

The General Theological Seminary [NYC AGO Organ Project Web Site] - Photographs, description, stoplist (Check Internet Archive, archive.is)