GEOFFREY COBB
Author, “Greenpoint Brooklyn’s Forgotten Past”
gcobb91839@Aol.com
Though tens of thousands of people walk along Steinway Street in Astoria every day, few know the remarkable story of William Steinway, the entrepreneurial genius who transformed a small family piano business into one of the world’s greatest musical companies. Under his leadership, Steinway & Sons became synonymous with excellence, and today more than ninety-five percent of concert pianists choose to perform on Steinway instruments.
Steinway was unusual among nineteenth-century industrialists in that he devoted enormous personal resources to improving the communities in which his employees lived. He believed that successful businesses also carried civic responsibilities, a philosophy reflected throughout his life.
William was born in Germany in 1835 into a famous piano-making family. His father, Heinrich Steinweg, pioneered many innovations that helped shape the modern grand piano and secured numerous American patents for improvements in piano construction. Steinweg ran a successful piano-making business in his native land but decided to emigrate. In 1850 the Steinweg family emigrated to the United States, attracted by America’s booming piano market and discouraged by political instability, military conscription, and restrictive business regulations in Germany.
Upon arriving in America, the family anglicized its surname from Steinweg to Steinway. In 1853 Heinrich Engelhard Steinway founded Steinway & Sons. While his brothers concentrated on piano design and manufacturing, William became the company’s business strategist, directing its marketing, finances, and public relations and helping transform Steinway & Sons into one of the world’s leading piano manufacturers. William believed that artistic prestige was as valuable as commercial success, encouraging famous pianists to perform exclusively on Steinway instruments. Long before celebrity endorsements became common, William realized that distinguished musicians could shape public opinion. He cultivated relationships with Anton Rubinstein, Ignacy Paderewski and Hans von Bulow. In 1866 he opened Steinway Hall on East Fourteenth Street, combining a concert hall, piano showroom, and cultural center that became one of New York’s leading musical venues.
Steinway & Sons achieved its first major national recognition at the 1855 American Institute Fair held at the New York Crystal Palace, at which the firm exhibited one of its pianos. A reporter for Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper raved, “The Steinway square piano arrived at its present state of perfection, upon which it seems impossible to improve.” This positive press led Steinway’s sales to skyrocket from 74 pianos in 1854 to 208 pianos in 1856.
The firm became internationally famous thanks to the 1867 Paris Exposition, where the powerful tone of its grand pianos won a gold medal and established Steinway & Sons as an industry leader. When Steinway & Sons incorporated in 1876, William became its president and treasurer, positions he held for the remainder of his life.
For a few years, Steinway and Sons produced its pianos in a factory located on expensive Midtown Manhattan real estate. Unhappy with the high cost of Manhattan real estate and with ever-present labor agitation, William purchased 400 acres across the East River in the bucolic, sparsely populated area of Astoria, New York. With space for much-needed expansion, William set about creating the company town of Steinway, where the firm could cast its own piano frames and saw its own lumber. Steinway & Sons pianos are still manufactured at this location.
William envisioned far more than a factory. Unlike many industrialists of his era, Steinway believed that prosperous workers were more productive, more loyal, and more invested in the success of the enterprise. His model community reflected both humanitarian ideals and sound business judgment. He created an entire industrial community where employees could live in solid brick homes, send their children to school, attend church, receive mail, rely on fire protection, and travel easily to Manhattan. William donated land for a church and built a public school, firehouse, and post office. He set up a network of horse-car railroads, streetcars, trolleys, and ferries to allow easy access to his factory and company town.
At what is today, LaGuardia Airport, he set up North Beach Amusement Park, which offered “respectable people” an alternative to Coney Island and the chance to enjoy evening festivities illuminated by the novelty of electric lighting. It featured roller coasters, a carousel, beer gardens, music pavilions and dance halls. Summer crowds reportedly reached 50,000 visitors in a single day, making North Beach one of New York’s premier amusement parks. It remained enormously popular until the site was redeveloped as LaGuardia Airport in the late 1930s.
Despite his enormous business responsibilities, William remained deeply devoted to music. He served as president of the German Liederkranz Society, where he sang tenor and helped promote German musical culture in New York.
William’s business success brought him increasing influence in New York’s civic affairs. As Steinway & Sons flourished, he became a respected public figure who advised President Grover Cleveland on numerous appointments. The New York Times praised him not only as a model businessman, but also as a model citizen. There was no project of public improvement in which he was not interested, and to which he was ready to give his time and means without any expectation of repayment.
William served as a member of the Committee of Seventy tasked with fighting the corruption of Boss William Tweed’s Tammany Hall. He also became Chairman of New York City’s Rapid Transit Commission—known as the Steinway Commission— which charged him with developing an underground transit system powered by electricity, a radical idea for the time. Although politics delayed construction, Steinway’s vision ultimately helped shape the development of New York City’s subway system. The Steinway Tunnel beneath the East River later became part of today’s 7 train.
William Steinway died on November 30, 1896, with universal grief at his passing. He had not only created an iconic piano brand but had founded a community and transformed it from wilderness into an integral part of the new metropolis. He had been the president of numerous societies, a founder or official in at least three banks, and the benefactor both publicly and in secret of innumerable charitable organizations.
Nowadays, thousands of New Yorkers pass beneath the Steinway Tunnel every day, drive along Steinway Street, or hear music performed on Steinway pianos without realizing that one remarkable immigrant helped make all three possible.
