The present church building did not have an organ until 1887, when the Roosevelt Organ Company of New York City installed (at a cost of $12,000) their Opus 364 in the church gallery. To celebrate the church's first organ, a series of free-admission organ recitals were offered to the public; these recitals featured not only local organists, but also Alexandre Guilmant, the renowned French virtuoso. In 1892, William C. Carl was appointed as the church's first organist and choirmaster. In 1898, during Guilmant's second American tour, the idea was formed to found a school for organ instruction in New York. The next year, First Presbyterian offered the use of its new Roosevelt organ and facilities for use by the Guilmant Organ School. The Guilmant School existed until the 1970s.