The following is from a wonderful old populist rant called "America's
60 Families" by Ferdinand Lundberg, published in 1937 by Vanguard
Press.  Assuming you can find a copy, it can be found in:

  Chapter: "Extravagance Amid Poverty"
  Sub-chapter: "Pipe Organs"

In my copy (A "first edition" woo-hoo!) it's on page 437.

(Esoteric NB:  Thorstein Veblen, anyone?)

George Bogatko

 - - -

"Although the wealthy families are not perceptibly musical they plunge
heavily on expensive pipe organs, which are an honorific badge of the
ability to dissipate funds and at the same time serve to impress
country cousins, servants, and business acquaintances.

"The pipe organ, it may be observed, is virtually an obsolete
instrument, and survives largely because of its medieval religious
associations.  In flexibility of range it has been superseded by the
piano, in sonority and volume it has been superseded by the modern
symphony orchestra, the faithful recordings of which may be played by
anyone on the phonograph.  But both recorded symphonies and pianos are
within the reach of the lower classes; they do not confer honorific
pecuniary distinction upon their owners.

"While it would be about as expensive to maintain a private string
quartet as a pipe organ, few of the wealthy families have seen fit
to do so; for there is not much to display in four musicians holding
fiddles of various sizes.  The late E. J. de Coppet, Swiss-American
broker, subsidized for many years the famed Flonzaley Quartet, named
after his Swiss residence, and enjoyed its music in private when the
organization was not on tour.  John W. Garrett, of Baltimore, former
Ambassador to Italy, in part financed the Stradivarius Quartet, which
played for him in his Baltimore home and at the Embassy in Rome.
Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge has done much for chamber music.  The late
Paul M. Warburg played the violin and hobnobbed a good deal with string
quartet players, and one of his nephews is a prominent cellist.  But
such evidences of a truly refined musical taste among members of our
wealthiest families are seldom encountered.

"The most expensive privately owned pipe organ in America is Pierre du
Pont's Longwood instrument, which cost $250,000.  The organ in Charles
M. Schwab's Riverside Drive New York chateau would Cost $200,000 to
duplicate today.  Pipe organ installations have been made by Aeolian
or Wurlitzer for Felix M. Warburg, William K. Vanderbilt, John D.
Rockefeller, Sr., John D. Rockefeller, Jr., Mrs. H. McK. Twombly (who
is a Vanderbilt), Andrew W. Mellon, and Edsel Ford.  The Skinner Organ
Company has made installations for Arthur Curtiss James, Dudley S.
Blossom, and Robert Law.  Estey pipe organs have been installed for
Henry Ford, Harry F. Sinclair, and for Mrs. Cadwalader on her yacht.
These, of course, are only a few of the rich individuals who can
astound dinner guests with a salvo of Bach fugues."