Pipe Organ Database

Built in 1917 for Holy Apostles Episcopal Church in Manhattan. Sold ca. 1931 for $500 to Grace Church, City Island, The Bronx.

In 1917, Archer Gibson, the private organist of Mr. Charles M. Schwab, was engaged to play for a wedding at Holy Apostles. Gibson found the "old rattle-bang" Jardine organ to be unsatisfactory and complained to the Rector. With Gibson's assistance, the Carnegie Fund was convinced to provide approximately half the $5000 cost of a new organ, which was built by the A.B. Felgemaker Co. of Erie, Pennsylvania. The three-manual and pedal organ had tubular-pneumatic action, but as the Choir was only prepared for, the organ functioned as a modest two-manual instrument of eighteen ranks. In less than ten years, however, the Felgemaker organ began to fail, and an appeal sought funds to repair and complete the instrument. Money was raised toward that goal, but ultimately, it seemed best to build an entirely new organ. The Felgemaker was sold for $500 to Grace Episcopal Church on City Island in The Bronx.