Pipe Organ Database

The ledger book of Charles Viner & Son held in the American Organ Archives lists the stoplist of every organ Charles Viner Sr. worked on, including those of Johnson & Son while he worked there between 1890 and 1896. Viner bought the assets of the failed Garret House company ca. 1898-99 in Buffalo, and the first entry of a new Viner instrument is in 1900 and continues the House numbering with No. 146. The entry for First Presbyterian is No. 153, likely in 1901 or 1902 at the latest. The original maker of the organs Viner altered, moved, or rebuilt, is not identified in the ledger entries.

The specification indicates this had tubular-pneumatic action and "individual valves". While the Roosevelt would have had ventil action as well, it is not clear from the entry if Viner replaced the windchests with ventil chests of his own design, (very much like the Hillgreen, Lane & Co. action but more elegantly built), or simply converted the Roosevelt primaries to tubular action and retained the Roosevelt windchests. There are other anomalies that would not have been typical for Roosevelt and suggest additional Viner modifications: enclosure of the Great pipework with the Choir as well as a Great-Choir tremulant, (this could suggest a change to the wind system), and Great to Pedal at Octaves coupler. While the main entry is in ink, a subsequent entry in pencil notes the scales of the pipework in inches (in other entries Viner typically records such details in standard scale numbers). A final pencil notation indicates the organ was rebuilt for the "Un. Presby. Ch. Bfflo in 1925" [University Pres.?], although the next database entry for this church states the organ was rebuilt and enlarged by Austin in 1915 incorporating almost the entirety of this stoplist.

Updated through on-line information from David Snyder.

Rebuilt and enlarged in 1915 by Austin.