Blooming Grove United Church of Christ

8 Old Dominion Road

Blooming Grove, NY 10914

Specification prepared by Joseph Bertolozzi January, 2010

Photography and other information supplied by Jan Kohler

Hook & Hastings, 1901, Op. 1937, II/14

Two manuals of 61 notes

Pedalboard of 27 notes

Tracker action

824 pipes originally, now 836; see Swell Oboe/Bassoon

The manual keys are ivory-covered, pedal keys of walnut and maple. The casework is quarter-sawn

white oak, with mahogany stop jambs and key cheeks.

GREAT (right jamb)

Open Diapason 8'

Melodia 8’

Dulciana 8'

Principal 4'

Fifteenth 2’

SWELL (left jamb)

Open Diapason 8'

Salicional 8’

Voix Celeste 8’

Stop’d Diapason 8'

Gemshorn 4’

Flute Harmonique 4'

Oboe/Bassoon 8'

Tremolo

NOTE :

The Oboe/Bassoon is taken from the Hook & Hastings Opus 1935, replacing the original Opus 1937

T.C. Oboe. It was added in the spring of 1980 or 1981 by the A & J Pipe and Reed Organ Company of

Newburgh, NY. Robert Seely of Circleville, NY made the mechanism for the Bassoon slider to open and

close, with a minimum of movement, less than 1.5 inches.

PEDAL Bourdon 16'

Violoncello 8'

Expression:

Balanced Swell Pedal

MECHANICALS

COUPLERS

Swell to Great

Swell to Pedal

Great to Pedal

Gt. to Ped. Reversible

REGISTRATIONAL FOOT LEVERS

Gt. Piano

Gt. Forte

Right Jamb stop knob, middle row

Great division

Open Diapason 8'

Left Jamb stop knob, middle row

Swell division

Oboe 8’, Bassoon 8’, Gemshorn 4’,

Flute Harmonique 4’

Left Jamb stop knobs, bottom row

Pedal division & pedal couplers

Right Jamb stop knobs, bottom row

Manual coupler and tremolo

Left Jamb stop knob, top row

Swell division

Open Diapason 8', Salicional 8’, Voix Celeste 8’

Stop’d Diapason 8'

Right Jamb stop knob, top row

Great division

Fifteenth 2’, Principal 4', Melodia 8’, Dulciana 8'

SOME ORGAN AND CHURCH HISTORY

Sanctuary from around 1890 (organ installed in 1902)

Sanctuary from 2006

The following history is condensed from the church’s website as well as a concert program provided

by Jan Kohler from their 250th

anniversary celebration featuring West Point organist Craig

Williams, a 1980 account appearing in the local newspapers by Phyllis Hunter, a member of the

church, and The Whistlebox, the newsletter of the Mid Hudson Chapter of the Organ Historical

Society, Vol. III , No. 1, January 1981.

In 1902 church member and the railroad magnate David Moffat Jr. presented a pipe organ to the

Blooming Grove church in memory of his father, the long-time choirmaster who in his time used a

tuning fork to obtain the proper pitch. Before Moffat’s gift, the congregation also used a reed organ built

by the Mason & Hamlin Organ Company of Boston.

The donation aroused substantial controversy because to accommodate the pipe organ, the pulpit

platform was moved forward and the choir balcony was removed. One member took the matter to court

because his pew would have to be dismantled (In the fashion of the time, each pew was bought by and

individual or a family, making each pew owner a partial owner of the church with a title to the pew). He

later withdrew the lawsuit. The sanctuary today retains many of its original features despite the

renovation to accommodate the pipe organ in 1902.

When the church building was built in 1823 slavery was still legal in New York, and the building

committee directed the builders to include galleries to either side of the pulpit for slaves and other

people of color; the center section with the railing was for the choir. The segregated seating, or "slave

galleries," long since disused, remained to either side.

The "slave gallery" to the right of the pulpit.

The Blooming Grove United Church of Christ began around 1758 as a Presbyterian church. In 1758 the

church purchased a tract of land and built its first meetinghouse in 1759. The approximate site of the

first meetinghouse is known but nothing remains of the building except for some fragments of interior

woodwork.

In 1823 the church had grown to the point that it needed a new building. Rather than enlarge the

existing meetinghouse the congregation sold the original building which was torn down, and erected the

present building.

An early photograph of the church ca. 1870 showing the horse sheds to the left.

A LIST OF THE ORGANISTS OF THE BLOOMING GROVE CHURCH

1903 (Mrs.) Rogers

ca. 1903-1915 Unknown

ca. 1915-1938 Jane Durland Sears ca. 1938-1940 Janet Bate

1940-1982 Clara Johnson 1983 Alan Carrick

1983-1985 Jeffrey Stein 1985-1987 Marian Wheeler

1988 Jeffrey Stein 1988 Janet Steeves

1989-1996 Linda Bierling

1996 Bernice Fowler 1996-present Janiece Kohler

A LIST OF THOSE WHO PUMPED THE ORGAN DOESN’T EXIST!

Organ hand pump handle