According to the Viner ledger, the organ cost $2,500.00
This building was originally constructed as an Episcopal church in the 1830s, but the congregation later merged with a larger one a couple blocks away, and the building was sold to the Masons in 1896. Whatever organ was in the building at that time, was replaced with a large 2-manual Johnson installed in a rear gallery in 1896, one of the last organs Johnson built. In spite of the organ being exceptionally built as are all Johnsons of this period, inexplicably the Masonic organist in the early 1960s favored their getting an Allen, and the keydesk was removed so the Allen could be shoved up against the case. Thereafter, they allowed a local builder to scavenge the pipework and vandalize the rest, leaving only the exceptional Double Open Wood, main frame, Swell chest and swell box walls. I reconstructed the stoplist from the original Swell toeboards and Great combination action equipment, but recently discovered the original stoplist in the Charles Viner ledgers now held in the American Organ Archives. Viner recorded the stoplist of the last 100 Johnson instruments during the period he worked there, 1891-1896.
The original oak case and facade pipes with original stenciling intact are extant in the building) (March 2019), which has recently been sold by the Masons to an African-American fundamentalist congregation who recognize the value of the case as an artifact.
An original installation. Identified by John Igoe, using information found in Johnson Organs, 1844-1898: Wm. A Johnson, Johnson Organ Co., Johnson & Son: a documentary issued in honor the two hundredth anniversary of his birth, 1816-2016 / by Scot L. Huntington, Len Levasseur, Barbara Owen, Stephen L. Pinel, and Martin R. Walsh. Cranbury, New Jersey: The Princeton Academy of the Arts, Culture, and Society, 2015.. --
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