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V O L . XXXI. No. 13. Published Every Saturday by Edward Lyman Bill at 3 East Fourteenth Street. New York, September 29,1900. S INGIS O COPIES YI 5« CENT*
Another Sterling Addition!
ORGAN
BUSINESS IS TO BE PUSHED WITH
MORE VIGOR—NEW SHOP TO BE
BUILT AT ONCE.
(Special to The Review.)
Derby, Conn., Sept. 24, 1900.
The Sterling Co. yesterday awarded a
contract for an addition to its organ de-
partment. This will be the third addition
that the company has made to its plant
during the present year, the others being
to the piano department. The building is
to be of wood, 110x40 feet, three stories
high, and will be located along the bank of
the tail race, extending east from the old
Hawkins factory, which was acquired some
years ago and fitted up for the exclusive
manufacture of organs. Work is to be
commenced at once and the factory will be
completed within two months.
Thursday was the twenty-seventh anni-
versary of the purchase by R. W. Blake
of his interest in the Sterling Co., and the
award of the contract was a fitting cele-
bration of that anniversary. Col. Wm. B.
Wooster was the lawyer who drew up the
papers in connection with the purchase and
his sudden death, Thursday morning, re-
called the fact that it was that same day
twenty-seven years ago that he did the
work. Mr. Blake said, this morning, that
Col. Wooster had always been to him a
warm friend and a wise advisor.
The building of this addition marks what
will be a decided change in the organ busi-
ness, so far as the Sterling is concerned.
When Mr. Blake took hold of the business
the factory was a very small one, and ship-
ping six organs a week was considered a
very large trade. He has a picture of the
small buildings as they stood before fire
destroyed them, in which he and one man
worked in the fall of 1873, making cases.
This was after "Black Friday," when all
business had gone to the dogs, and the
company didn't even feel warranted in
heating the big shop. A stove was put in
the small shop and these two men were
the only ones engaged in manufacturing
organs, that winter, in this place. In the
spring, however, business picked up and
before long the organ industry grew until
the concern was shipping 30 or 40 a day.
After the piano business was added the
company devoted its attention to this
business and let the organ business go.
This was about fifteen years ago and
while the concern's organ trade has shrunk
somewhat since that time, it is doing a
fair business to-day. There now seems
to be a growing demand for organs, both
for the foreign and western trade, due to
the fact that freer circulation of money
has made it possible for people who cannot
afford a piano to have an organ. Appre-
ciating this fact, the company proposes to
get as much of this trade as possible. As
the Sterling organ always stood high in
the market there is little doubt that it will
continue to sell well.
The addition will give the organ depart-
ment a capacity of about thirty a day.
When a comparison of the small factory,
with its capacity of six organs a week, is
made with the present one and its 180 or-
gans and 150 pianos per week, it shows
what shrewd business methods and good
reputation will do.
Firms Who Will Exhibit.
(Special to The Review.1
Buffalo, N. Y., Sept. 23, 1900.
Widespread piano interest has not, as
yet, been aroused in the coming Pan-
American Exposition which opens next
May in this city.
Among the firms who have applied for
space are Ludwig & Co., New York; Mar-
shall & Wendell, Albany; Wegman Piano
Co., Auburn, N. Y. ; Foster & Co. ; Haines
& Co. ; Martin Piano Co., Rochester; Shaw
Piano Co., Erie.
Some Buffalo dealers are urging some of
the prominent houses whom they represent
to take part in the Exposition.
It is not believed, however, that the in-
terest will become widespread and develop
into a trade landslide towards the Pan-
American.
A Kingsbury Victory.
FIVE KINGSBURY PIANOS GO TO THE A. C. F.
COLLEGE, TUSKEGEE, ALA.
After investigating various other makes
of pianos, Dr. John Massey has given his
order for five handsome Kingsbury pianos,
to be used in the A. C. F. College, which
is one of the leading industrial institutions
in the South. It was no leap in the dark,
for the Kingsbury has been used in a num-
ber of colleges near home for several
years, and Dr. Massey knew its reputation.
Among these are "The Cox Female Col-
lege," College Park, Ga.; "Southern Fe-
male College," La Grange, Ga. ; " Tusca-
loosa Female College," Tuscaloosa, Ala. ;
" Anniston Female College," Anniston,
Ala.; " South-Eastern Agricultural Col-
lege, Abbeville, Ala.; "Agricultural Col-
lege," Wetumpka, Ma.; "Gordon Insti-
tute," Barnsville, Ga.—The Tuskagee
(Ala.) News.
Marshall & Wendell
Future.
THE
FOSTER-ARMSTRONG-MARTIN COMBINA-
TION OF ROCHESTER, PURCHASE THE AS-
SETS OF THE ALBANY CONCERN
WILL PUSH THE ENTERPRISE.
[Special to The Review.]
Albany, N. Y., Sept. 24, 1900.
All speculation as to the future of the
Marshall & Wendell business may now
cease, for an important deal has just been
consummated, whereby the assets of the
old Albany concern pass into the posses-
sion of the Foster-Armstrong-Martin conv-
bination of Rochester.
This move means that business vitality
of no ordinary kind will be infused in the
historic old house.
The gentlemen comprising the Roches-
tei syndicate have made a distinguished
success of their piano manufacturing en-
terprises, so much so that factories capable
of turning out six thousand pianos per an-
num are pressed to their utmost capacity
in order to take care of their present trade.
The business development of this insti-
tution is without parallel in the history of
the industry, and with the addition of the
Marshall & Wendell plant, which has a
capacity of eighty pianos per week, the
Foster - Armstrong - Martin combination
raise their producing capacity to eight
thousand instruments per annum, and
gives them front rank in the greatest piano
producing combinations in the world.
Their trade is wholly confined to whole-
sale and is distributed from ocean to
ocean.
The chief reasons for the phenomenal
success of this combination lie largely in a
clean cut, practical analysis of trade needs,
a factory system denuded of all superflui-
ties, the application of business rules in
every department, all of which cleverly
blended have resulted in producing in-
struments which have won the trade of
the dealers on account of their salable
excellence.
The Albany factory will be splendidly
organized on the same lines which have
been operative in the Rochester factories
and ere long Marshall & Wendell pianos
will be turned out in numbers never be-
fore approached.
Frank W. Grow, piano dealer of Rutland,
V t , had a large exhibit of musical instru-
ments at the Fair Haven fair last week.
During the week Harry Stafford gave a
number of piano recitals, which were inter-
spersed with some excellent vocal work by
A. D. Hayward.