Database Manager on September 6th, 2019:
This entry describes an original installation of a new pipe organ.
<br>Identified by Steven Bartley, citing information from this publication: Sun Paper- Baltimore,MD October 17, 1859.<br>Handsome Church Organ – Some time since several of the members of the First Constitutional Presbyterian Church, located at the corner of Green and German streets, determined to present the church with an organ, and and order was given to Messrs. Pomplitz & Rodewald to build one, to be cost $1,200. The instrument is completed, and last week it was placed in the gallery of the church. The organ is of large size , with two banks of keys and eighteen stops. It is 14 feet high,11 ½ wide, and 9 feet deep. The case of solid walnut, oiled, with a handsome ornament on top, the whole finished after the Bysantine (sic) style. The Pedal is one and a half octaves, and it has five solo stops. The tone is full and melodious and several eminent organists have pronounced it one of the best in the country. The front presents a fine appearance, all the largest pipes being handsomely gilt.<br>Heretofore the church has had no organ, and it will prove a valuable acquisition. On Sunday next it will be used for the first time time to aid the choir. The same firm is building an organ for the chapel of the Church Home, on Broadway, of small dimensions; also, one for the Episcopal, church, Halifax County Va., and one for the Episcopal church Albany Ga.<br>------------------------------------------------------------------------<br>The, above, article is as written in the Sun Paper. This congregation built a new building, on Lafayette Square, in the 1870s, renaming Lafayette Square Methodist Episcopal Church. A new Johnson organ was installed in the new building, at the time it opened. The old building was sold to be used by other congregations, then in the late 1890s/earl 1900s it was repurposed as part of a larger men's straw hat company, later being demolished by the University of Maryland, along with two or three others church buildings.