AND THEN THE MUSIC STOPPED - APRIL 1885

Submitted April 2025 by Anita M. Mance, Historian

The history of the company began in 1902 when fire destroyed the Foster-Armstrong and Wendell and Marshall plants in Rochester. These companies belonged to George Foster and w.B Armstrong. With Despatch (East Rochester) just beginning as s village of industries, Walter Parce (East Rochester's founder) offered George Foster 30 acres of land to rebuild his business - property we\\ located next to the railroad tracks, a perfect place for shipping pianos. And so, eleven buildings (ten manufacturing structures and one office building) were constructed of poured concrete. This new construction method had been created by English engineer Ernest Ransome of the company Ransome and Smith. (During the 1920s, Kate Gleason used this same concrete construction method for the houses of her two developments - Concrest and Marigold Gardens). The front of the company faced the railroad tracks. The property was landscaped with lawns and flower beds.

The Piano Works opened in 1905. As the years went by, it became a kind of conglomerate of many companies making pianos on one site. Each company had its own specifications and style. As it merged with other companies, the Foster-Armstrong Company became the American Piano Company, and later after more mergers and acquisitions, the Aeolian American Company, It became the largest manufacturing plant of quality pianos in the world. Pianos of all sizes were made there, from spinets to concert grands. Over the years workers produced pianos for Haines Brothers, Foster and Company, Armstrong Company. Marshall and Wendell, Brewster Piano Company, Knabe, Chickening, J. & C. Fischer Company, Mason and Ham\in, George Steck Piano Company, and Weber. Woods used included mahogany, ebony, walnut, oak, and cherry. Almost alt of the work was done by hand to create the 5000 parts needed for each piano. The tuning was done by blind workers with each piano being tuned four times before being shipped.

Production ebbed and flowed over the years. By the 1920s, 700 pianos were produced each week. During World War II, the Piano Works joined the war effort by making airplane parts for the Canadian Air Force. Following the war years, fewer pianos were made each year. During the 1950s about 350 pianos were made weekly. The recession of the late 1960s and the rise of the manufacturing of less expensive pianos in Japan both hurt the company. Parts of the company were sold in the 1970s, with the Piano Works closing for the last time in 1985.

The attached photograph (available as a download below) illustrates the pride the workers felt for the pianos they had produced. Commemorative plaques were formally dedicated in the fall of 2001. Two plaques were made — one is in the atrium of the Piano Works Mll and the second is in the entrance to the Eyer Building.