Austin Organ Co.
Opus 534, 1914

Updated through online information from Charles Eberline (December 1, 2024): First Presbyterian Church, Charleston, WV, US. "52 ranks" in the 11590 record is almost certainly incorrect. In the opus list at the Austin website, 52 is the number of stops, not ranks, and that number may be an error, since an Austin Organ Co. ad headed "List of AUSTIN ORGANS Built and Contracts Closed During 1914," The Diapason, March 1915, 14, lists the organ of the First Presbyterian Church, Charleston, W. Va., as 3 manuals, 32 speaking stops; "3 32" also in the opus list in Orpha Ochse's book Austin Organs. (Of course, the organ may have been enlarged at some time before it was replaced by Fisk Op. 79 in 1981, although I have found no evidence that this is the case.) 16 Leon Sullivan Way, the current address of the church, is anachronistic for Austin Op. 534. A brief notice of Sunday services in the Charleston Daily Mail, November 13, 1915, 8, gives the address of the church as "Virginia and Broad streets," and the 1917 Charleston, WV, city directory lists the address of the church as "Virginia cor Broad." City leaders renamed that part of Broad Street as Leon Sullivan Way in August 2000.

Replaced by Fisk Op. 79 in 1981. Church installed Casavant Op. 3886 in 2010. The Fisk and the Casavant stand at opposite ends of the sanctuary at balcony level.

Information identifying this instrument from the Austin Organs, Inc. web site, accessed December 16, 2004: http://www.austinorgans.com/organ-research.htm.