| The Organs and History of Trinity Church Pottsville, Pennsylvania |
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Part I: The Earliest Notes
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| St. Luke's Church |
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Early in the year 1827, John Strickland, a Philadelphia architect and
student of Benjamin Latrobe, began work on St. Luke’s Protestant
Episcopal Church, the first church in Pottsville. Known for his
interpretations of classical prototypes, John Strickland designed St.
Luke’s in a pure gothic style, a small stone structure measuring 45’ by
35’. St. Luke’s steeple held the first church bell rung in the small
but growing town of Pottsville, and to this day, that bell continues
to call our community to worship and prayer from the steeple of the
Chapel of the Resurrection in Charles Baber Cemetery.
St.
Luke’s Church was consecrated on Sunday, May 23, 1830. From that day
to the present, the organs of St. Luke’s (later Trinity Church) have
played an important part in the life of our parish and our community.
The Organ Historical Society records the installation of an organ in
St. Luke’s Church by Henry Corrie of the firm Corrie and Hubie,
Philadelphia, in 1833. It is believed that this was the first church
organ in Pottsville, as the Organ Historical Society has no record of
any installations prior to that date.
As Pottsville grew from
a small hamlet founded in 1820 to more than ten thousand people in
1836, there was a need to build a larger church to accommodate the
faithful. The Vestry of the Church commissioned Philadelphia architect
Napoleon Lebrun to design a large church “…in the purest gothic
style…and dimensions to afford seats for a thousand people…” (from The
Trinity Church Monthly).
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LeBrun had apprenticed early in his career
with the offices of Thomas U. Walter in Philadelphia who would later
become architect of the dome of the United States Capitol. Lebrun
would also go on to become a prominent Pennsylvania and New York
architect who later designed the Schuylkill County Prison (1851); The
Academy of Music, Broad and Locust Streets, Philadelphia (1856); the
Basilica Cathedral of Sts. Peter and Paul, Logan Square, Philadelphia
(1864); and the Episcopal Church of St. Mary the Virgin, 46th Street,
New York City, (1895), which is the first church to have been built
using a steel superstructure.
LeBrun designed the new Trinity Episcopal Church in the
English Gothic style. Construction was begun after the thirtieth day
of May, 1847, when St. Luke’s Church was taken down. The new church
was a tremendous leap of faith for the Parish; it was to have cost ten
thousand dollars, but additional costs put the Parish into debt for
many years thereafter.
The new church also received a
new organ in 1848. The “…enterprising godly women [of the parish] got
up a ‘street fair’ for the purchase of a new organ, indispensable in so
large a church…the fair realized over twelve hundred dollars, [and] the
organ was paid for…” (from The Trinity Church Monthly).
The
first service in the new building was held December 12, 1848, “…the
scaffolding still standing in the interior of the building…while as yet
muslin served as windows…” (from The Trinity Church Monthly). The
Organ Historical Society records the installation of this organ in
1848; however, there was no reference as to who built the instrument.
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In the summer of 1866, extensive renovation and
redecoration of the LeBrun structure was begun. This work included the
cutting down of the side walls, elimination of the pitched roof, the
addition of a clerestory, and included elaborate interior stenciling
decoration, much of which can still be seen today.
Vestry records
suggest that the work was directed by the New York architectural firm
of Henry Dudley and Frederick Diaper. It is noted here that Henry
Dudley was an English trained architect who was one of the thirteen
founders of the American Institute of Architects. His ecclesiastical
work includes St. Paul’s Cathedral in Syracuse; Trinity Church, Elmira;
and Christ Church, New Brunswick. Frederick Diaper was trained by
architects in England who were members of the Ecclesiological Society,
which became one of the major advocates for Gothic Revival
architecture. Frederick Diaper was not primarily a church architect,
but he did work on St. James, Fordham, Bronx, NY, which has one of the
great, stunning sets of Tiffany windows.
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The present Gallery organ case which perfectly fills the clerestory space was built in 1866 to house a new organ. Patrick J. Murphy, in his publication, The Stop List (Spring, 1998), writes “…this case is believed to have been built by J. C. B. Standbridge of Philadelphia…” Church records note that this two manual, 54 note keyboard organ of 24 stops cost “…$1,500.00 and the old organ…” (Vestry Minutes, November 13, 1865).
The organ was, as were previous instruments, pumped by hand, and The Vestry Minutes from this period reports that the organ blower was paid $20.00 per year, and the organist was paid $150.00 per year! (It was not until October 7, 1889, that electricity was provided to the church).
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| Gallery Organ Case |
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In the spring of 1874, a chime of nine bells was given to the church by Charles Baber and the bells were then installed in the steeple of the church. They were forged in Troy, New York, by the Troy Bell Foundry, and traveled to Pottsville by water and by rail. The old bell -- the first church bell to have rung in Pottsville -- was placed in the steeple of the Chapel of the Resurrection in Charles Baber Cemetery. Both the chime of nine bells in the church and the original bell in the chapel call the people of Pottsville to worship to this present day.
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