1900-01-01 - Organ ("Archival photograph, courtesy of Anthony Meloni"/Database Manager)
1989-08-31 - Organ (Photograph by Anthony Meloni/Database Manager)
1989-08-31 - Keydesk (Photograph by Anthony Meloni/Database Manager)
Note: Not extant. Not playable. (in this location)
2004-10-30 - Status Note: There 1998 -Database Manager
2004-10-30 - The house was then sold to Charles Steele in 1916. The house, now [1998] the Johnson O Conner Foundation, is on the market for $30 million.** The organ is still in place, though not playable. -Database Manager
2007-04-11 - Updated through on-line information from Anthony Meloni. -- Aeolian/Votey Opus 871, oldest extant Aeolian in North America, was a gift by Japanese Ambassador Sato, new owner of the mansion, to Anthony Meloni in 2000. It is currently in storage awaiting sale, restoration and installation to a public institution or museum. It was found to be in excellent condition. -Database Manager
2011-01-26 - Updated through on-line information from Connor Annable. -Database Manager
Typed stoplist from the OHS PC Database. Source: Source not recorded Date not recorded
Ernesto G. Fabbri residence, NYC 1899 Aeolian-Votey, Op. 871 (Stoplist: Rollin Smith, PIPORG-L 1998) GREAT 8 Open Diapason 8 Viol di Gamba 8 Dulciana 8 Gross Flute 4 Flute Harmonique Bass 4 Flute Harmonique Treble 8 Trumpet Bass 8 Trumpet Treble SWELL 8 Rohrflöte Bass 8 Rohrflöte Treble 8 Viol d'Orchestre 8 Dolcissimo 8 Unda Maris 4 Violino 8 Orchestral Oboe Bass 8 Orchestral Oboe Treble Tremolo ECHO 8 Fern Flöte 4 Salicet 8 Vox Humana Tremolo PEDAL 16 Contra Bass 8 Violoncello Built in 1899 by the Votey Organ Company of Detroit, Mich., for Aeolian as were all Aeolian organs at the time. The two-manual, 17-stop instrument cost $7,500. The house, at 11 East 62nd Street, New York City, was Margaret Vanderbilt (Mrs. Elliot Fitch) Shepard's (daughter of William Henry Vanderbilt) wedding present to her daughter Edith (1872-1954), bride of the banker, Ernesto G. Fabbri. It was designed by the architectural firm of Haydel & Shepard, the latter partner, August Dennis Shepard Jr., was related to the bride's mother. The townhouse's five floors contain 22,500 square feet and include a mahogany paneled 25-by-41-foot dining room, gentlemen's and ladies' reception rooms, a ballroom with an ornate plaster ceiling, a sweeping staircase leading to the second floor, the banister of which supports a pair of Louis XIV-style bronze candelabra with cupids nearly six feet high. The Aeolian organ is in the second-floor music room; the pipe chamber is on the third floor.* The Fabbri's lived in the house until 1916, when they moved to 7 East 95th Street (and in 1916 ordered Aeolian Op. 1398, a II/21-rank with a Duo-Art player in the console). The house was then sold to Charles Steele. The house, now the Johnson O Conner Foundation, is on the market for $30 million.** The organ is still in place, though not playable. A peculiar aside is given by Louis Auchincloss in "Maverick in Mauve" (Garden City: Doubleday & Co., Inc., 1983) 131: "Edith Shepard Fabbri was in love with Alessandro Fabbri, her divorced husband's brother, and ultimately had him buried in her lot in the Vanderbilt cemetery on Staten Island." An addendum to Rollin Smith's "The Aeolian Pipe Organ and Its Music" (Richmond, Va.: The Organ Historical Society, 1998). *James Barron, "High Cost of Living in History: The $30 Million Town House?" The New York Times (December 2, 1997) B3. **Leslie Kaufman, "Buy! Buy! Buy!" Newsweek (July 13, 1998) 37.
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