Better Pipe Organ Database

Unknown Builder (1920's)

Virginia Street Church (Swedenborgian): Sanctuary; front
170 Virginia St
St. Paul, MN

Images

ca. 2016 - Console (Photograph from an archival source: Twin Cities AGO Organ List, submitted by Jim Stettner/Jim Stettner)

ca. 2016 - Console and facade (Photograph from an archival source: Twin Cities AGO Organ List, submitted by Jim Stettner/Jim Stettner)

2013-05-14 - Sanctuary interior with organ facade (Photograph by Kimmy Tanaka; on Paul Nelson, “Virginia Street Swedenborgian Church,” Saint Paul Historical, accessed October 30, 2020, https://saintpaulhistorical.com/items/show/120., submitted by Jim Stettner/Jim Stettner)

ca. 1920 - Sanctuary interior with organ facade at left (Photograph from an archival source: Paul Nelson, “Virginia Street Swedenborgian Church,” Saint Paul Historical, accessed October 30, 2020, https://saintpaulhistorical.com/items/show/120., submitted by Jim Stettner/Jim Stettner)

Consoles

Main

Organ type: Traditional With Roll Top
Console position: Console in Fixed Position, Left
2 manuals
11 stops
12 registers
3 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 (Details Unknown)
Has crescendo
Combination action: Adjustable Combination Pistons
Has combination thumb pistons

Notes

2009-04-03 - Identified through on-line information from Richard C Greene. -Database Manager

2020-10-30 - This organ is a second-hand instrument. From the Ramsey County Historical Society quarterly publication, Fall 2001, Vol. 36, No. 3, pg. 29, “The Financial Angel Who Rescued 3M The Life and Times of Lucius Pond Ordway” - *Her love of music sustained her, and so did friends who dropped by every afternoon for tea and sandwiches. She listened to the radio, Alexandra Bjorklund remembered; she had a phonograph “that flipped the records for her, and she had a stack of symphonies.” The house had a pipe organ “and the entire attic was filled with pipes,” but the time was past when Jessie Ordway could play it. The organ eventually went to the Swedenborgian church.* -Jim Stettner

Stoplist

Source: Stoplist copied from the Twin Cities AGO Organ List October 30, 2020

St. Paul, Minnesota
Virginia Street Church (Swedenborgian)

HALL ORGAN CO., Opus ____, 1919 - Original Specifications
Unknown Builder, 19__ - Moving and Re-installation


GREAT                                    COUPLERS
  8'  Open Diapason                        Swell to Pedal                  8,4
  8'  Gross Flute                          Great to Pedal                  8
  8'  Gedeckt
  8'  Dulciana                             Swell to Great               16,8,4

  4' Great to Great
                                         FINGER PISTONS
                                           Swell & Pedal                 1 - 4
SWELL (Expressive)                         Great & Pedal                 1 - 3
  8'  Gedeckt
  8'  Viole d'Orchestre
  8'  Viole Celeste                      TOE STUDS
  8'  Aeoline                              Undocumented
  8'  Unda Maris
  4'  Flute Harmonic
      Tremolo                            PEDAL MOVEMENTS
                                           Expression                   (bal.)
  Swell to Swell 16'                       Crescendo                    (bal.)
  Swell Unison Off
  Swell to Swell 4'
                                         ACTION: E-P

PEDAL                                    VOICES: 11         STOPS: 12
  16' Bourdon                   32
  16' Lieblich Gedeckt          –-       RANKS: 11          PIPES: ____


NOTES
The organ was originally built for the home of Maurice and Matilda Rice Auerbach
at 400 Summit – and elaborate 3-storey, 1882 Queen Anne home. It was purchased
in 1918 by Lucius and Jessie Ordway. After Jessie was no longer able to play the
organ it was given to the Swedenborgian church. Who did the removal and re-
installation is not known.

The organ is installed in a single, left-side chamber at the front with a facade
of 19 gold-painted façade pipes. The console is in fixed position on the left in
front of the façade with the organist facing across the sanctuary.


Sources: Ramsey County Historical Society, Fall 2001, Vol. 36, No. 3, pg. 29,
         “The Financial Angel Who Rescued 3M The Life and Times of Lucius Pond
         Ordway”; Twin Cities AGO Organ List


Virginia Street Swedenborgian Church
170 Virginia Street
St. Paul, MN. 55102
(651) 358-3125                               Documented: October 30, 2020