Lyon & Healy
Opus 1480, 1907

From – The Baltimore Sun October 5, 1907 pg. 11: One of the most interesting events of this week in the connection with St. Paul’s Church will be that at 11 o’clock service on Sunday, October 6, the magnificent new organ which has just been installed will be heard for the first time outside of trial practice. The organ has been set up and tuned in the record-breaking time of two weeks since being received in Richmond. It is a magnificent instrument, said by those who have heard the great musical instruments of the world to compare with the organs of Lucerne, of Westminster Abbey and of Paris.

Built In Two Sections
It is built in two organ sections, one to the right of the chancel, with an echo organ in the rear of the church, and the whole played from a small instrument with three keyboard to the left of the chancel. The keyboards are connected by an electric action on 150 wires, with the two main organs. A windpipe 20 inches in diameter running over the roof of the church takes the wind to the opposite end, where the echo organ is situated, and this pipe is fed by a five-horsepower electric motor.

Rich In Diapason Tone
There are 42 speaking stops and 20 couplers, as we as 13 adjustable movements. The diapason pipes are said to be the heaviest of their kind ever manufactured in this country. The general tone of the organ is one of churchly dignity, and contains very soft and beautiful effects, the echo organ being unusually complete and having the rare equipment of bells. The organ is finished in oak of classic simplicity, which accords well with the quiet tones that are among the chief attractions of the church. The organ will be played on Sunday by Mr. Jacob Rinehardt, who has been organist at St Paul’s Church for 27 years. The organ was built by the Chicago firm of Lyon & Healy, and its cost is $15,000.

INSTALL LYON & HEALY ORGAN. Richmond, Va., April 9, 1907.

   "A magnificent pipe organ will be installed in St. Paul's Episcopal Church before September 1 by Lyon & Healy, of Chicago. The organ will be in two compartments, and will be the finest in the South, as well as the first of its kind ever put in any church south of New York.

   "The contract has been signed and calls for the installation of the organ before September 1. The work of putting in the organ will very probably be done during the month of August; the present organ to be used up to that time.

   "The main organ will contain thirty-four stops, and will be located in the place the old instrument occupies at the present, while the echo organ, containing eight stops, including chimes, will be placed in the old organ gallery. The entire instrument will have a total of forty-two stops. When the chime stops are used the music is exquisite, the air being carried by the bells which have a far away but distinct sound that blends in perfect harmony with the other notes of the organ."

-The Music Trade Review, April 13, 1907.

Identified through information adapted from E. M. Skinner/Aeolian-Skinner Opus List, by Sand Lawn and Allen Kinzey (Organ Historical Society, 1997), and included here through the kind permission of Sand Lawn:
Augmented and replaced in stages by Aeolian-Skinner, Opus 1188 (1949) and Opus 1188-A/B (1951, 1953), reusing some existing pipes.