Gloversville, New York
St. Mary's Catholic Church

Giles Beach revision of Alvinza Andrews organ of 1838

NOTES

The organ was built by Andrews in 1838, and according to later accounts was not completely successful.  The 
organ was "improved" by Beach as his first project as an independent organ builder in 1848 (this was Beach's 
home church), and taken by him in trade when he installed his first two-manual instrument there in 1857.  
eavily altered and rebuilt again by Beach, the organ was installed in St. Mary's Catholic Church in 
Gloversville at an unknown later  date.  The organ was acquired by a private party in the late 1970s.  
Sold to another private party in recent years, it was offered on Ebay in the fall of 2006 after the bottom 
third of the organ was damaged by flash flooding on the Susquehanna River.

 
It will take extensive study to determine the chronology of the Beach alterations and the extent of the 
surviving Andrews material.  At present, it is conjectured that the 1848 modifications were minimal and 
probably tonal, and the major, somewhat crude alterations to the case and action were by Beach, subsequent 
to its installation at St. Mary's. What is immediately obvious is that the organ was originally G-compass, 
converted to C-compass by Beach with a new keyboard and action; the original wooden basses to the open 
stops were replaced with zinc pipes, the compass of the Open Diapason was extended five notes to tenor c 
with zinc pipes; the wooden stop action squares were modified with metal squares; the organ was enclosed 
with a hitch-down swell pedal (1848?); the elegantly proportioned 5-sectional case was shortened (massacred) 
severely; and a 20-note pedal board, coupler,  and Subbass 16' were added (all now missing).  Some of the 
existing pipework exhibits Beach traits and the four ranks appear to be of at least two different makers.  
The case is of pine, painted white, the half-round wooden dummies are gold-leafed, the double-rise reservoir 
has two feeders, and is lined with newspapers from Albany and Cooperstown dating from the spring of 1838.  
The ebony stop knobs are on square shanks and have a variety of spurious labels (two may be original).  
The rosewood keydesk is recessed behind doors.
 
Reconstructed stoplist:
 
Manual:  originally GGG, AAA-f3, 58 notes, now CC-f3 54 notes
 
Open Diapason             originally tenor f, 
                          37 pipes, common metal (Andrews with 5 Beach zincs?)
Stopt Diapason Treble     tenor f; pipes by Beach or Andrews pipes with bored Beach stoppers
                          37 pipes
Stopt Diapason Bafs       stopped pine, Andrews pipes, 
                          21 pipes
Dulciana                  tenor f, common metal (Andrews?)
Principal                 common metal (Beach?), originally with 9 open wood basses from GGG