1 200 35 https://nthistory.com/files/original/a2bdfe8c4029f01c2a620846e75b9f64.jpeg 449954705476eb0d8bbe42f1f85862c3 https://nthistory.com/files/original/494fc7063555cd2f454b7543aa6183ec.jpeg 66c1fb913a8fdc9c33e348e7b569d194 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Niagara Musical Instrument Manufacturing Company Description An account of the resource <img class="cover" alt="The former Niagara Musical Instrument Mfg. Co. on Thompson Street in North Tonawanda, as it may have appeared in 1930, thirteen years after closing. AI rendering of a still frame from a video in the Hamp collection of the Histoerical Society of the Tonawandas." src="http://www.nthistory.com/custom/cover/75.jpg" />The former Niagara Musical Instrument Mfg. Co. on Thompson Street in North Tonawanda, as it may have appeared in 1930, thirteen years after closing. Artificial Intelligence rendering of a <a href="https://nthistory.com/items/show/1674">still frame from a video</a> in the Hamp collection of the Historical Society of the Tonawandas. The conspicuous depression of Felton Field (a former quarry and later train yard) is in the foreground. (1905-1917) The carousels being made in North Tonawanda open another, related market: automatic musical instruments such as band organs to accompany the rides. The Niagara Musical Instrument Manufacturing Company enters this business in early 1905. In early 1905, "articles of partnership" are submitted to the Niagara County Clerk: <blockquote>TO MAKE MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS Articles of partnership of the Niagara Musical Instrument Manufacturing company were filed today with the county clerk. The object of the company is to manufacture barrel organs and other musical instruments, and $1,500 is to be used to carry on this business. The directors, who are all from North Tonawanda, are as follows: Frank Morganti, Louis Schultz, George Schultz, William Herschell and Duncan Sinclair. Lockport Journal, February 17, 1905.</blockquote> The company is incorporated on September 30, 1905, with $25,000 capital. Its president, Frank Morganti, is a longtime former employee of Eugene de Kleist's <a href="http://nthistory.com/collections/show/24">North Tonawanda Barrel Organ Factory</a>. Signatures on the company's 1905 incorporation papers include those of William Herschell, the man who arranged for de Kleist’s coming to America to make organs, as well as machinist William Strassburg. Also: <ul> <li>Duncan Sinclair</li> <li>Frederick Schultz</li> <li>William H. Griffin</li> <li>Louis Schultz</li> <li>William D. Trimble</li> </ul> Niagara produces Niagara Military Band Organs ("The Organ That Is Different," one ad insists) for carousels, dance halls, roller rinks and sideshows. In 1906 Niagara loses some if its leadership, including president Frank Morganti, to the larger and better funded <a href="http://nthistory.com/collections/show/10">North Tonawanda Musical Instrument Works</a>. Niagara continues on, and completes a second small expansion of it modest plant in August 1910. They target the silent film theatre market that year with their "En-Symphonie" orchestrion. The "Midget Orchestra" and similar instruments follow. Business appears to be booming in 1914, as the company pays out a dividend of 10% to its stockholders that January. However, in October 1917, the Foster Specialty Company of Buffalo purchases the "patents, goodwill, stock in trade, and equipment" of Niagara. In spite of reports that Foster intends to "immediately develop the business...on a large scale," the enterprise is never heard from again. Reader Andrew Barrett contributes the names C. E. Phillips and J. F. Preston as probable Niagara sales people in 1909 and probably thru 1910. <a href="http://nthistory.com/niagara">PHOTO SEARCH: Learn about the search for a photograph of Niagara! </a> Postcard A pictorial representation of a place or entity, intended to be written upon and mailed. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Niagara Musical Instrument Co., mailer (1914-04-27).jpg Description An account of the resource Featuring a photo of the so-called "Midget Orchestra" Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1914-04-27 collection organ postcard https://nthistory.com/files/original/be0418053fb43556ec7aa23ea210719e.jpg b8d94579c0a307647f9ecbac50a8fe90 https://nthistory.com/files/original/607127934ec429e322240f5bd3b8e52a.jpeg e27541567b5907262058415bd5236ee5 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Allan Herschell Companies Description An account of the resource <img class="cover" src="http://www.nthistory.com/files/original/0a8137a27b9978ab2f72819b2bd699cf.jpg" alt="" /> An 1894 Armitage-Herschell advertisement shows a not-at-all-dangerous-to-children-looking steam boiler and pulleys providing motive power to the company's signature device. <div>On gilded signs posted at its southern and northern entrances, North Tonawanda introduces itself to visitors as "The Home of the Carrousel." The still-ubiquitous fairground staple was not invented in North Tonawanda (some version of it had been around <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/dizzy-history-carousels-begins-knights-180964100">since at least the 12th Century</a>), but thousands were produced here and the highest levels of craftsmanship were attained here under the guidance of Scottish-born Allan Herschell. </div> In 1872 (Landmarks says 1873), the Armitage-Herschell Co. begins as a small brass and iron foundry on Manhattan Street, comprised of Englishman <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/889">James Armitage</a>, and Scottish brothers <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/880">George</a> and <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/877">Allan Herschell</a>. The firm survives devastating fires in 1874 and 1875, and expands to a location off Oliver Street (whence comes the name, "Mechanic Street"), adding engines and boilers to their specialties. Youngest partner Allan sees a carousel while traveling, and recognizes ways it can be improved. By 1887, his "Improved Steam Riding Gallery" captivates the world, and people from India and France demand the modern amusement. The merry-go-round-makers at first import the accompanying band organs from the old European master-builders of Germany and France, but high tariffs decide them to instead import German organ maker <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/936">Eugene de Kleist</a> from England (de Kleist begins making organs at his <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/collections/show/24">North Tonawanda Barrel Organ Factory</a> in 1893). They organize in 1890. James Armitage and George Herschell die in early 1900. The Armitage-Herschell Company is succeeded by Herschell, Spillman & Company, and the Allan Herschell Company. Allan Herschell dies in 1927. The latter company continues making amusements, including miniature trains, boats and airplanes (some of which can be played upon at the <a href="http://www.carrouselmuseum.org">Herschell Carrousel Factory Museum</a> in North Tonawanda) as late as the 1960s. There is a large Herschell family plot in Sweeney Cemetery. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <ul> <li><a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/607">Landmarks of Niagara County (1897)</a></li> <li>“<a href="http://carrouselmuseum.org/site/about/allan-herschell">Allen Herschell History</a>.” Herschell Carrousel Factory Museum, 2014.</li> </ul> Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Herschell-Spillman improved riding gallery postcard.jpg carousel collection organ https://nthistory.com/files/original/7195ef13b0b651ad07e99353cf40dbba.jpg fa619f6288d193947b0f51e4909835b4 https://nthistory.com/files/original/bf6da87a2883b9fcb14bcb332ed0efef.jpg 79541be6bd145a45da68a3c9145b6f7b https://nthistory.com/files/original/4a5375cddb292d201f1650cc42bd4ac2.jpg 24694a9685a80281b859cffe804e193b https://nthistory.com/files/original/5fafc5b310283285b92bfcab0964d3fe.jpg 1ed55566fc4aa491416153a80f76707d https://nthistory.com/files/original/401ac82c869b1f06411bb4c82ba61544.jpg 792d88f9b225186e8a2d4c013dc77fd4 https://nthistory.com/files/original/c2ba18d3689edbda680f25bb37c383c0.jpg ec0fded44800c1c71edbcfd1329456b3 https://nthistory.com/files/original/4756b9461d4064ad7416f5c897553c7e.jpg 541cd6c026d00015c32d0f82b1a5faf2 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Allan Herschell Companies Description An account of the resource <img class="cover" src="http://www.nthistory.com/files/original/0a8137a27b9978ab2f72819b2bd699cf.jpg" alt="" /> An 1894 Armitage-Herschell advertisement shows a not-at-all-dangerous-to-children-looking steam boiler and pulleys providing motive power to the company's signature device. <div>On gilded signs posted at its southern and northern entrances, North Tonawanda introduces itself to visitors as "The Home of the Carrousel." The still-ubiquitous fairground staple was not invented in North Tonawanda (some version of it had been around <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/dizzy-history-carousels-begins-knights-180964100">since at least the 12th Century</a>), but thousands were produced here and the highest levels of craftsmanship were attained here under the guidance of Scottish-born Allan Herschell. </div> In 1872 (Landmarks says 1873), the Armitage-Herschell Co. begins as a small brass and iron foundry on Manhattan Street, comprised of Englishman <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/889">James Armitage</a>, and Scottish brothers <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/880">George</a> and <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/877">Allan Herschell</a>. The firm survives devastating fires in 1874 and 1875, and expands to a location off Oliver Street (whence comes the name, "Mechanic Street"), adding engines and boilers to their specialties. Youngest partner Allan sees a carousel while traveling, and recognizes ways it can be improved. By 1887, his "Improved Steam Riding Gallery" captivates the world, and people from India and France demand the modern amusement. The merry-go-round-makers at first import the accompanying band organs from the old European master-builders of Germany and France, but high tariffs decide them to instead import German organ maker <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/936">Eugene de Kleist</a> from England (de Kleist begins making organs at his <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/collections/show/24">North Tonawanda Barrel Organ Factory</a> in 1893). They organize in 1890. James Armitage and George Herschell die in early 1900. The Armitage-Herschell Company is succeeded by Herschell, Spillman & Company, and the Allan Herschell Company. Allan Herschell dies in 1927. The latter company continues making amusements, including miniature trains, boats and airplanes (some of which can be played upon at the <a href="http://www.carrouselmuseum.org">Herschell Carrousel Factory Museum</a> in North Tonawanda) as late as the 1960s. There is a large Herschell family plot in Sweeney Cemetery. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <ul> <li><a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/607">Landmarks of Niagara County (1897)</a></li> <li>“<a href="http://carrouselmuseum.org/site/about/allan-herschell">Allen Herschell History</a>.” Herschell Carrousel Factory Museum, 2014.</li> </ul> Object Photos or illustrations of artifacts of an entity. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Herschell-Spillman catalog excerpts (c1903).jpg Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1903 carousel organ https://nthistory.com/files/original/cc9e0bcd6b738bbe4ed82bac5ef50e91.jpg 917b186df988dc1e09cabfc002121bd6 https://nthistory.com/files/original/c07d3e8944a2dfb49945c531001de46a.jpg 5136150e850d88283a1461d46c9bc44e Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource North Tonawanda Barrel Organ Factory (1893-1903) Description An account of the resource <img class="cover" src="http://www.nthistory.com/custom/cover/24d.jpg" alt="North Tonawanda Barrel Organ Factory, 1893 (colorized by webmaster)" />Nucleus of Wurlitzer: The North Tonawanda Barrel Organ Factory in 1893. It still stands in 2023. The first of its kind in America, the North Tonawanda Barrel Organ Factory makes automatic musical instruments to provide music for Allan Herschell's world-famous carousels. Led by the fiery Prussian gentleman-genius Eugene de Kleist, the firm survives an early national Depression to succeed beyond its wildest expectations with the help of a musical family from Ohio named the "Wurlitzers." <div class="img-caption-container"><img src="http://nthistory.com/files/square_thumbnails/cc9e0bcd6b738bbe4ed82bac5ef50e91.jpg" alt="Image description" /> <div class="caption">De Kleist band organ, c.1900.</div> </div> Portable music of another era Before the phonograph and radio, the next best thing to a live orchestra or marching band is a "band organ" or "orchestrion." Essentially giant music boxes with drums, pipe organs, brass horns and more, these devices are popular in Europe for centuries before being produced in the New World in 1893 with the North Tonawanda Barrel Organ Factory. The factory is built in the spring of 1893 by local merry-go-round makers the <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/collections/show/73">Armitage-Herschell Company</a> in the Sawyer's Creek / Martinsville area in the northeast of the recently incorporated City of North Tonawanda. To oversee operations, Armitage-Herschell recruits a German organ maker from London with whom they have been acquainted: the talented <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/936">Eugene de Kleist</a>. With a small crew of workers culled from England and the surrounding Martinsville farms, the North Tonawanda Barrel Organ Factory also makes organs for churches, offers repairs on existing organs, and makes the pinned barrels that contain the music the organs play. After about a year, Armitage-Herschell sign ownership of the enterprise over to their capable superintendent. Meet the Wurlitzers Business is middling until 1897, when de Kleist meets a decades-old musical retail concern from Cincinnati that will prove a valuable partner: the Rudolph Wurlitzer Company. The story goes that de Kleist was looking to interest the U. S. Army in buying his bugles, which were made as part of many of his band organs. de Kleist is told that the Wurlitzer company already has that business, so he approaches Wurlitzer, and is able to sell them some of his bugles. He also tries to interest Wurlitzer in his band organs, but they ask if he coud instead produce a coin-operated piano for use in taverns and restaurants. After over a year in development, the first "Tonophones" are ready in 1898, and are an immediate success. (Hear <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/1023">Farny Wurlitzer</a> tell this story himself <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5dXbpPM7T0&t=5m29s" target="_blank" rel="noopener">in this remarkable speech from 1964</a>). Similiar instruments, such as the Pianino, follow, and the small factory begins to grow, and over the next few years establishes the northwest corner of the massive Wurlitzer plant still standing in North Tonawanda today. The de Kleist Musical Instrument Manufacturing Company In 1903, the Barrel Organ Factory incorporates as the de Kleist Musical Instrument Manufacturing Company, with investment from banker James Thompson and some new top brass. Wurlitzer's interest in the North Tonawanda plant increases as Eugene de Kleist's seems to wane (<a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/936">see de Kleist's bio</a> for more on this). In 1905 a group of workers leaves to form the <a href="http://nthistory.com/collections/show/75">Niagara Musical Instrument Manufacturing Company</a>; within a year another wave of defectors forms the <a href="http://nthistory.com/collections/show/10">North Tonawanda Musical Instrument Works</a>. 1908 begins auspiciously: in January, de Kleist (now mayor of North Tonawanda) lavishly fetes 700 employees and their families in the new music department building. His superintendent, Paul Von Rohl, delivers a speech in his honor, and they dance and carouse until morning light begins filtering over Sawyer's Creek. The following months will not be as good. de Kleist files a $50,000 infringement lawsuit against the aforementioned Instrument Works, but loses. In March, he leaves the aforementioned Paul Von Rohl in charge of the factory while he is off racing powerboats in Florida. de Kleist returns to suspect there has been rampant theft in his absence, and brings charges of grand larceny against Von Rohl, which are dropped, replaced by petit larceny charges, and then found unproved by a jury. In April, Mayor de Kleist accuses eight employees of stealing valuable machinery and plans from his factory, and of conspiring to start another rival factory. The summer brings more powerboating and politicking. Perhaps fearing for the security of their investment, Wurlitzer buys Eugene de Kleist out. <a href="http://nthistory.com/collections/show/52">The Rudolph Wurlitzer Manufacturing Company</a> is organized in December of 1908 with $1,000,000 capital. Object Photos or illustrations of artifacts of an entity. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource De Kleist band organ, booklet type, photo (c.1900).jpg Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1900 organ https://nthistory.com/files/original/611565065c92d3281259eb2037e0686b.png a1e897a3a1c85bb1581b5322f575abe6 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Wurlitzer Manufacturing Company Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Wurlitzer: 100 Years of Musical Achievement. Rudolph Wurlitzer Company. Chicago, Illinois. 1956. Description An account of the resource <img class="cover" src="../../../custom/cover/52.jpg" alt="The signature tower of the North Tonawanda plant and occasional headquarters." /> The signature tower of the North Tonawanda plant and occasional headquarters. Postcard, c.1940. Its iconic tower has presided over Sawyer's Creek and Martinsville for over 100 years. The sprawling industrial campus left behind by the world-famous Wurlitzer Manufacturing Company produced merry-go-round organs, band organs, church organs, theater organs and jukeboxes that have left an indelible mark on the world, and on generations of North Tonawandans. Wurlitzer founder Rudolph Wurlitzer (1831-1914) was a German immigrant who (after stops in New Jersey and Philadelphia) landed in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1854 at the age of 23. He worked for a bank, and down the street was a musical retail store. His father, Christian, was a successful music retailer in Germany, and Rudolph's experience told him the Ohio store's instruments were of poor quality, and priced too high. In 1856 he begins importing quality musical instruments from his family in Germany to sell at a profit in American retail stores. The business grows; Wurlitzer begins making instruments themselves for the U. S. military and for retail. The company branches out into "automatic" musical instruments, such as music boxes and player-pianos. Rudolph's three sons, Howard, Rudolph H., and Farny become involved along the way, and take on aspects of the growing family business. The youngest son, Farny, is sent to North Tonawanda to run the former <a href="http://nthistory.com/collections/show/24">de Kleist Musical Instrument Mfg. Co.</a> shortly after it is purchased by Wurlitzer in 1908. (de Kleist was building player pianos and band organs for Wurlitzer and others since 1893). Farny brings eccentric English inventor Robert Hope-Jones to the plant in 1910, initiating the worldwide success of the "Mighty Wurlitzer" theater organ, which provides sound for the silent films of the day, and entertainment in its own right. This business evaporates when sound comes to movies, and electrical sound amplification permits musical entertainment to be furnished to venues of all types much less expensively. When the Wurlitzer company finds itself overextended in the wake of the Great Depression, Farny fights to keep the North Tonawanda facility open. In 1934 he strikes a deal with Homer Capehart to manufacture his automatic phonograph, which becomes the iconic Wurlitzer jukebox. Under his leadership the company also produces a successful line of electronic organs for home use, and the North Tonawanda plant becomes the flagship of the Wurlitzer factories, with 3,000 employees. After his death in 1972, jukebox and organ production are phased out, leaving 200 employees in 1974. By 1975, all manufacturing at the North Tonawanda plant is stopped, and by August 1976, all company activities are removed to other locations. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Guy at orchestrion, photo (c1922).png Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1922 organ person wurlitzer https://nthistory.com/files/original/285563dd9a661d46126d9b56d436a901.jpg f9b71c87282fb98900678885ddde23dc https://nthistory.com/files/original/ae750d0ad8dfd08f1ec9f13bd43a3ed9.jpg 313d9dccd7edb967ba77d7ba1a64b335 https://nthistory.com/files/original/df0caee6528f34e01de05aec3f8df03d.jpg a14564212049b092f65293dcfb479a13 https://nthistory.com/files/original/7e66cd634230ec5177b32ec74e1f4c8b.jpg 63aaad6d0dbd73d0fbf24efc123d3d08 https://nthistory.com/files/original/37a76b301b34dcb0ecf1a76985e6f9f6.jpg 50953f72b4aa2b2b972b4981c2760ff0 https://nthistory.com/files/original/6244328770b67ac67c0c44f8621c5e43.jpg 8b9b4505779119cac41f57fc1c853215 https://nthistory.com/files/original/f27781bd57eed37328aa923264c7b820.jpg 65c2de1378336622dfd7ebcf0634b84c https://nthistory.com/files/original/34d8307334b4ab59391b73dbf9a3a823.jpg fe97c35d5ba08cc756818eb930105611 https://nthistory.com/files/original/bc03dd0c9e3d9da676c41bddeccd045a.jpg cecd0e0f8a1d27a678642bcd1c55b61b Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Niagara Musical Instrument Manufacturing Company Description An account of the resource <img class="cover" alt="The former Niagara Musical Instrument Mfg. Co. on Thompson Street in North Tonawanda, as it may have appeared in 1930, thirteen years after closing. AI rendering of a still frame from a video in the Hamp collection of the Histoerical Society of the Tonawandas." src="http://www.nthistory.com/custom/cover/75.jpg" />The former Niagara Musical Instrument Mfg. Co. on Thompson Street in North Tonawanda, as it may have appeared in 1930, thirteen years after closing. Artificial Intelligence rendering of a <a href="https://nthistory.com/items/show/1674">still frame from a video</a> in the Hamp collection of the Historical Society of the Tonawandas. The conspicuous depression of Felton Field (a former quarry and later train yard) is in the foreground. (1905-1917) The carousels being made in North Tonawanda open another, related market: automatic musical instruments such as band organs to accompany the rides. The Niagara Musical Instrument Manufacturing Company enters this business in early 1905. In early 1905, "articles of partnership" are submitted to the Niagara County Clerk: <blockquote>TO MAKE MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS Articles of partnership of the Niagara Musical Instrument Manufacturing company were filed today with the county clerk. The object of the company is to manufacture barrel organs and other musical instruments, and $1,500 is to be used to carry on this business. The directors, who are all from North Tonawanda, are as follows: Frank Morganti, Louis Schultz, George Schultz, William Herschell and Duncan Sinclair. Lockport Journal, February 17, 1905.</blockquote> The company is incorporated on September 30, 1905, with $25,000 capital. Its president, Frank Morganti, is a longtime former employee of Eugene de Kleist's <a href="http://nthistory.com/collections/show/24">North Tonawanda Barrel Organ Factory</a>. Signatures on the company's 1905 incorporation papers include those of William Herschell, the man who arranged for de Kleist’s coming to America to make organs, as well as machinist William Strassburg. Also: <ul> <li>Duncan Sinclair</li> <li>Frederick Schultz</li> <li>William H. Griffin</li> <li>Louis Schultz</li> <li>William D. Trimble</li> </ul> Niagara produces Niagara Military Band Organs ("The Organ That Is Different," one ad insists) for carousels, dance halls, roller rinks and sideshows. In 1906 Niagara loses some if its leadership, including president Frank Morganti, to the larger and better funded <a href="http://nthistory.com/collections/show/10">North Tonawanda Musical Instrument Works</a>. Niagara continues on, and completes a second small expansion of it modest plant in August 1910. They target the silent film theatre market that year with their "En-Symphonie" orchestrion. The "Midget Orchestra" and similar instruments follow. Business appears to be booming in 1914, as the company pays out a dividend of 10% to its stockholders that January. However, in October 1917, the Foster Specialty Company of Buffalo purchases the "patents, goodwill, stock in trade, and equipment" of Niagara. In spite of reports that Foster intends to "immediately develop the business...on a large scale," the enterprise is never heard from again. Reader Andrew Barrett contributes the names C. E. Phillips and J. F. Preston as probable Niagara sales people in 1909 and probably thru 1910. <a href="http://nthistory.com/niagara">PHOTO SEARCH: Learn about the search for a photograph of Niagara! </a> Object Photos or illustrations of artifacts of an entity. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Niagara-Engelhardt Player Piano, photo set.jpg Description An account of the resource Seen on eBay. From the seller's description: "Niagara Musical Instrument Company North Tonawanda, N.Y. with Peerless Engelhardt plaque directly below the coin slot. This is an A roll piano with mandolin. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSiPwR8xJg4." Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1910 organ https://nthistory.com/files/original/5b233fb1d04434a5b89d3e81ae2a7447.jpg 09a20ca5b5601b2ab74bcc0b5b4416ef https://nthistory.com/files/original/f3e073b3fe407957ff0c134433e38d1e.jpg 8943fb64e748bae1d1a7ffd0d1833c7b https://nthistory.com/files/original/43dd5e64aabd4943aab95cf4f2c80ae9.jpg ea31361b865e14bbb96293f3d0c6eb3b https://nthistory.com/files/original/18a8e42db23be0441149ed9ce773306b.jpg 7ed95944dd7c9e3ff2e2061a411efd62 https://nthistory.com/files/original/00ec6d51f616463d24a1e235c0bd716f.jpg 423ca596c2c412f91ae344dda995d3bf Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Artizan Factories Inc. (583 Division Street) Description An account of the resource <img class="cover" src="http://nthistory.com/custom/cover/22.jpg" alt="Artizan Factories photo, 1926" /> The only known photograph of the Artizan Factories Inc. building in its seven years of operation; published in a 1926 industrial survey. From the Historical Society of the Tonawandas. The red brick building at 583 Division Street was built for music. <div class="img-caption-container"><img src="http://nthistory.com/files/square_thumbnails/7737a2457cebcbaaa529e8a7c35d86e6.jpg" alt="A colorfully painted Style D band organ" /> <div class="caption">A "Style D" band organ on display at the Herschell Carrousel Factory Museum, 2015</div> </div> Artizan Factories Inc. makes "automatic" musical instruments for carousels, fairgrounds, and parks. The men are refugees, so to speak, of the <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/collections/show/10">North Tonawanda Musical Instrument Works</a>, which was purchased by the Rand Visible Records Company in 1918 and converted to making office supplies. Artizan president Stillman C. Woodruff was the first secretary and treasurer for the <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/collections/show/24">de Kleist Musical Instrument Mfg. Co.</a> in 1903 and served in a similar capacity for the <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/collections/show/10">North Tonawanda Musical Instrument Works </a>. Vice president Frank Morganti and treasurer Christian Maerten have also made the rounds of the local organ factories, and each have 30 years of firsthand experience. Like the North Tonawanda Musical Instrument Works' original factory, the single-elevator Artizan building is designed to accomodate expansion. However, in its case, an expansion is never necessary. In spite of its talented leadership, the competition from the nationwide Wurlitzer and changing tastes in public entertainment prove too much. After years of economic hardship, the venture fails in 1929. Other concerns have owned the building through the decades. Little trace remains of the original work done here. The first floor was removed and merged with the basement, as seen in a video tour in this collection. Doug Hershberger of the Herschell Carrousel Factory Museum paid a visit in 2006, and found much the same, as he recorded in the <a href="http://www.mmdigest.com/Archives/Digests/200811/2008.11.29.06.html">Mechanical Music Digest</a> that year: <blockquote>Inspection of the interior of the factory building is an exercise in frustration to a historian. I have never seen a building so utterly devoid of clues or artifacts or interest. There was not a partition, a workbench, a sign painted on the wall, anything that gave a clue as to the original occupant of the building. I'm not sure there was even paint on the wall. Moreover, even the first floor was gone! One of the post-Artizan owners of the property needed a higher ceiling, so he removed the first floor, making the basement ceiling the underside of the second level. Mr. Wagner was generous with his time and provided some interesting background on the building. He moved his business to the site in 1986. He said the previous owner was a pallet manufacturer who had gone bankrupt. The elevator had been sold off for income. Some of the (hardwood?) flooring had been removed by someone for the construction of a summer home. There were two boilers associated with the building, but evidently not within the four-story structure. Both have been removed and one boiler room is now used as a compressor room.</blockquote> Object Photos or illustrations of artifacts of an entity. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Artizan carousel organ, photo (1923).jpg Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1923 organ https://nthistory.com/files/original/980a6f0b80db8b33fc58e785fb31a7e6.jpg 76b25a07a5263ce0d244c7ef1edb4068 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Niagara Musical Instrument Manufacturing Company Description An account of the resource <img class="cover" alt="The former Niagara Musical Instrument Mfg. Co. on Thompson Street in North Tonawanda, as it may have appeared in 1930, thirteen years after closing. AI rendering of a still frame from a video in the Hamp collection of the Histoerical Society of the Tonawandas." src="http://www.nthistory.com/custom/cover/75.jpg" />The former Niagara Musical Instrument Mfg. Co. on Thompson Street in North Tonawanda, as it may have appeared in 1930, thirteen years after closing. Artificial Intelligence rendering of a <a href="https://nthistory.com/items/show/1674">still frame from a video</a> in the Hamp collection of the Historical Society of the Tonawandas. The conspicuous depression of Felton Field (a former quarry and later train yard) is in the foreground. (1905-1917) The carousels being made in North Tonawanda open another, related market: automatic musical instruments such as band organs to accompany the rides. The Niagara Musical Instrument Manufacturing Company enters this business in early 1905. In early 1905, "articles of partnership" are submitted to the Niagara County Clerk: <blockquote>TO MAKE MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS Articles of partnership of the Niagara Musical Instrument Manufacturing company were filed today with the county clerk. The object of the company is to manufacture barrel organs and other musical instruments, and $1,500 is to be used to carry on this business. The directors, who are all from North Tonawanda, are as follows: Frank Morganti, Louis Schultz, George Schultz, William Herschell and Duncan Sinclair. Lockport Journal, February 17, 1905.</blockquote> The company is incorporated on September 30, 1905, with $25,000 capital. Its president, Frank Morganti, is a longtime former employee of Eugene de Kleist's <a href="http://nthistory.com/collections/show/24">North Tonawanda Barrel Organ Factory</a>. Signatures on the company's 1905 incorporation papers include those of William Herschell, the man who arranged for de Kleist’s coming to America to make organs, as well as machinist William Strassburg. Also: <ul> <li>Duncan Sinclair</li> <li>Frederick Schultz</li> <li>William H. Griffin</li> <li>Louis Schultz</li> <li>William D. Trimble</li> </ul> Niagara produces Niagara Military Band Organs ("The Organ That Is Different," one ad insists) for carousels, dance halls, roller rinks and sideshows. In 1906 Niagara loses some if its leadership, including president Frank Morganti, to the larger and better funded <a href="http://nthistory.com/collections/show/10">North Tonawanda Musical Instrument Works</a>. Niagara continues on, and completes a second small expansion of it modest plant in August 1910. They target the silent film theatre market that year with their "En-Symphonie" orchestrion. The "Midget Orchestra" and similar instruments follow. Business appears to be booming in 1914, as the company pays out a dividend of 10% to its stockholders that January. However, in October 1917, the Foster Specialty Company of Buffalo purchases the "patents, goodwill, stock in trade, and equipment" of Niagara. In spite of reports that Foster intends to "immediately develop the business...on a large scale," the enterprise is never heard from again. Reader Andrew Barrett contributes the names C. E. Phillips and J. F. Preston as probable Niagara sales people in 1909 and probably thru 1910. <a href="http://nthistory.com/niagara">PHOTO SEARCH: Learn about the search for a photograph of Niagara! </a> Advertisement A graphic or text document produced by an entity for promotional purposes. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Niagara instruments, ad (Billboard, 1913-03-22).jpg Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1913-03-22 organ https://nthistory.com/files/original/5197df96cd08ccba595a9e2584448803.jpg 404544865a3233e839cc56183edae766 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Niagara Musical Instrument Manufacturing Company Description An account of the resource <img class="cover" alt="The former Niagara Musical Instrument Mfg. Co. on Thompson Street in North Tonawanda, as it may have appeared in 1930, thirteen years after closing. AI rendering of a still frame from a video in the Hamp collection of the Histoerical Society of the Tonawandas." src="http://www.nthistory.com/custom/cover/75.jpg" />The former Niagara Musical Instrument Mfg. Co. on Thompson Street in North Tonawanda, as it may have appeared in 1930, thirteen years after closing. Artificial Intelligence rendering of a <a href="https://nthistory.com/items/show/1674">still frame from a video</a> in the Hamp collection of the Historical Society of the Tonawandas. The conspicuous depression of Felton Field (a former quarry and later train yard) is in the foreground. (1905-1917) The carousels being made in North Tonawanda open another, related market: automatic musical instruments such as band organs to accompany the rides. The Niagara Musical Instrument Manufacturing Company enters this business in early 1905. In early 1905, "articles of partnership" are submitted to the Niagara County Clerk: <blockquote>TO MAKE MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS Articles of partnership of the Niagara Musical Instrument Manufacturing company were filed today with the county clerk. The object of the company is to manufacture barrel organs and other musical instruments, and $1,500 is to be used to carry on this business. The directors, who are all from North Tonawanda, are as follows: Frank Morganti, Louis Schultz, George Schultz, William Herschell and Duncan Sinclair. Lockport Journal, February 17, 1905.</blockquote> The company is incorporated on September 30, 1905, with $25,000 capital. Its president, Frank Morganti, is a longtime former employee of Eugene de Kleist's <a href="http://nthistory.com/collections/show/24">North Tonawanda Barrel Organ Factory</a>. Signatures on the company's 1905 incorporation papers include those of William Herschell, the man who arranged for de Kleist’s coming to America to make organs, as well as machinist William Strassburg. Also: <ul> <li>Duncan Sinclair</li> <li>Frederick Schultz</li> <li>William H. Griffin</li> <li>Louis Schultz</li> <li>William D. Trimble</li> </ul> Niagara produces Niagara Military Band Organs ("The Organ That Is Different," one ad insists) for carousels, dance halls, roller rinks and sideshows. In 1906 Niagara loses some if its leadership, including president Frank Morganti, to the larger and better funded <a href="http://nthistory.com/collections/show/10">North Tonawanda Musical Instrument Works</a>. Niagara continues on, and completes a second small expansion of it modest plant in August 1910. They target the silent film theatre market that year with their "En-Symphonie" orchestrion. The "Midget Orchestra" and similar instruments follow. Business appears to be booming in 1914, as the company pays out a dividend of 10% to its stockholders that January. However, in October 1917, the Foster Specialty Company of Buffalo purchases the "patents, goodwill, stock in trade, and equipment" of Niagara. In spite of reports that Foster intends to "immediately develop the business...on a large scale," the enterprise is never heard from again. Reader Andrew Barrett contributes the names C. E. Phillips and J. F. Preston as probable Niagara sales people in 1909 and probably thru 1910. <a href="http://nthistory.com/niagara">PHOTO SEARCH: Learn about the search for a photograph of Niagara! </a> Advertisement A graphic or text document produced by an entity for promotional purposes. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Niagara Automatic Bands, photo ad (Billboard, 1911-12-09).jpg Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1911-12-09 organ https://nthistory.com/files/original/a5de3fb454e1fdbd450da5ca37b4ed2f.jpg 37205c65b7e406cc32dbaf8b7073de70 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Niagara Musical Instrument Manufacturing Company Description An account of the resource <img class="cover" alt="The former Niagara Musical Instrument Mfg. Co. on Thompson Street in North Tonawanda, as it may have appeared in 1930, thirteen years after closing. AI rendering of a still frame from a video in the Hamp collection of the Histoerical Society of the Tonawandas." src="http://www.nthistory.com/custom/cover/75.jpg" />The former Niagara Musical Instrument Mfg. Co. on Thompson Street in North Tonawanda, as it may have appeared in 1930, thirteen years after closing. Artificial Intelligence rendering of a <a href="https://nthistory.com/items/show/1674">still frame from a video</a> in the Hamp collection of the Historical Society of the Tonawandas. The conspicuous depression of Felton Field (a former quarry and later train yard) is in the foreground. (1905-1917) The carousels being made in North Tonawanda open another, related market: automatic musical instruments such as band organs to accompany the rides. The Niagara Musical Instrument Manufacturing Company enters this business in early 1905. In early 1905, "articles of partnership" are submitted to the Niagara County Clerk: <blockquote>TO MAKE MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS Articles of partnership of the Niagara Musical Instrument Manufacturing company were filed today with the county clerk. The object of the company is to manufacture barrel organs and other musical instruments, and $1,500 is to be used to carry on this business. The directors, who are all from North Tonawanda, are as follows: Frank Morganti, Louis Schultz, George Schultz, William Herschell and Duncan Sinclair. Lockport Journal, February 17, 1905.</blockquote> The company is incorporated on September 30, 1905, with $25,000 capital. Its president, Frank Morganti, is a longtime former employee of Eugene de Kleist's <a href="http://nthistory.com/collections/show/24">North Tonawanda Barrel Organ Factory</a>. Signatures on the company's 1905 incorporation papers include those of William Herschell, the man who arranged for de Kleist’s coming to America to make organs, as well as machinist William Strassburg. Also: <ul> <li>Duncan Sinclair</li> <li>Frederick Schultz</li> <li>William H. Griffin</li> <li>Louis Schultz</li> <li>William D. Trimble</li> </ul> Niagara produces Niagara Military Band Organs ("The Organ That Is Different," one ad insists) for carousels, dance halls, roller rinks and sideshows. In 1906 Niagara loses some if its leadership, including president Frank Morganti, to the larger and better funded <a href="http://nthistory.com/collections/show/10">North Tonawanda Musical Instrument Works</a>. Niagara continues on, and completes a second small expansion of it modest plant in August 1910. They target the silent film theatre market that year with their "En-Symphonie" orchestrion. The "Midget Orchestra" and similar instruments follow. Business appears to be booming in 1914, as the company pays out a dividend of 10% to its stockholders that January. However, in October 1917, the Foster Specialty Company of Buffalo purchases the "patents, goodwill, stock in trade, and equipment" of Niagara. In spite of reports that Foster intends to "immediately develop the business...on a large scale," the enterprise is never heard from again. Reader Andrew Barrett contributes the names C. E. Phillips and J. F. Preston as probable Niagara sales people in 1909 and probably thru 1910. <a href="http://nthistory.com/niagara">PHOTO SEARCH: Learn about the search for a photograph of Niagara! </a> Object Photos or illustrations of artifacts of an entity. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Niagara Musical Instrument Mfg. Co., player piano and side unit (HST, c1910).jpg Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1910 organ https://nthistory.com/files/original/4f2671e5505c274426e1115545780f22.jpg 3e8e66e5ae60ba01b9544f205e5539a6 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Niagara Musical Instrument Manufacturing Company Description An account of the resource <img class="cover" alt="The former Niagara Musical Instrument Mfg. Co. on Thompson Street in North Tonawanda, as it may have appeared in 1930, thirteen years after closing. AI rendering of a still frame from a video in the Hamp collection of the Histoerical Society of the Tonawandas." src="http://www.nthistory.com/custom/cover/75.jpg" />The former Niagara Musical Instrument Mfg. Co. on Thompson Street in North Tonawanda, as it may have appeared in 1930, thirteen years after closing. Artificial Intelligence rendering of a <a href="https://nthistory.com/items/show/1674">still frame from a video</a> in the Hamp collection of the Historical Society of the Tonawandas. The conspicuous depression of Felton Field (a former quarry and later train yard) is in the foreground. (1905-1917) The carousels being made in North Tonawanda open another, related market: automatic musical instruments such as band organs to accompany the rides. The Niagara Musical Instrument Manufacturing Company enters this business in early 1905. In early 1905, "articles of partnership" are submitted to the Niagara County Clerk: <blockquote>TO MAKE MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS Articles of partnership of the Niagara Musical Instrument Manufacturing company were filed today with the county clerk. The object of the company is to manufacture barrel organs and other musical instruments, and $1,500 is to be used to carry on this business. The directors, who are all from North Tonawanda, are as follows: Frank Morganti, Louis Schultz, George Schultz, William Herschell and Duncan Sinclair. Lockport Journal, February 17, 1905.</blockquote> The company is incorporated on September 30, 1905, with $25,000 capital. Its president, Frank Morganti, is a longtime former employee of Eugene de Kleist's <a href="http://nthistory.com/collections/show/24">North Tonawanda Barrel Organ Factory</a>. Signatures on the company's 1905 incorporation papers include those of William Herschell, the man who arranged for de Kleist’s coming to America to make organs, as well as machinist William Strassburg. Also: <ul> <li>Duncan Sinclair</li> <li>Frederick Schultz</li> <li>William H. Griffin</li> <li>Louis Schultz</li> <li>William D. Trimble</li> </ul> Niagara produces Niagara Military Band Organs ("The Organ That Is Different," one ad insists) for carousels, dance halls, roller rinks and sideshows. In 1906 Niagara loses some if its leadership, including president Frank Morganti, to the larger and better funded <a href="http://nthistory.com/collections/show/10">North Tonawanda Musical Instrument Works</a>. Niagara continues on, and completes a second small expansion of it modest plant in August 1910. They target the silent film theatre market that year with their "En-Symphonie" orchestrion. The "Midget Orchestra" and similar instruments follow. Business appears to be booming in 1914, as the company pays out a dividend of 10% to its stockholders that January. However, in October 1917, the Foster Specialty Company of Buffalo purchases the "patents, goodwill, stock in trade, and equipment" of Niagara. In spite of reports that Foster intends to "immediately develop the business...on a large scale," the enterprise is never heard from again. Reader Andrew Barrett contributes the names C. E. Phillips and J. F. Preston as probable Niagara sales people in 1909 and probably thru 1910. <a href="http://nthistory.com/niagara">PHOTO SEARCH: Learn about the search for a photograph of Niagara! </a> Advertisement A graphic or text document produced by an entity for promotional purposes. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Niagara Military Band, En-Symphonie, ad (Billboard, 1910-03-19).jpg Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1910-03-19 organ https://nthistory.com/files/original/98291cc67470ff8c298c25728a2700d2.jpg 44f23c909c78caa8ad4fcce6b4433252 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource North Tonawanda Musical Instrument Works Description An account of the resource <img class="cover" src="http://www.nthistory.com/custom/cover/10.jpg" alt="North Tonawanda Musical Instrument Works, colorized by the webmaster." /> North Tonawanda Musical Instrument Works factory at 435 Payne Avenue, c1913; photo colorized by the webmaster. <div>(1906-1919) The North Tonawanda Musical Instrument Works produces military band organs, player pianos, organs for (still silent) "moving picture" theaters and more. The factory is the third automatic musical instrument manufacturer in the city, starting about a year after the <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/collections/show/75">Niagara Musical Instrument Manufacturing Company</a>. Like Niagara, NTMIW is partially comprised of men who have worked with <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/collections/show/24">de Kleist's Musical Instrument Works</a> (president John Birnie had been secretary-treasurer for de Kleist). According to an article in this set, NTMIW originally operates out of "the Williams plant on the Ellicott Creek." They incorporate in 1906, and in the second half of 1907 build a substantial four-story factory. In 1911 that factory is tripled (articles suggest the work is not completed until early 1912). Although larger than Niagara, NTMIW will always be a distant second behind de Kleist and Wurlitzer. In 1918, NTMIW is acquired by the Rand Visible Records Company. Rand continues the musical manufacturing business, and the former NTMIW leadership at first sticks around. Rand's press officers kick into high gear, founding a monthly internal company magazine, <a href="http://nthistory.com/items/show/1192">All of Us</a>, apparently aimed at easing the culture change. In spite of this gesture, NTMIW founding officer Stillman C. Woodruff and others leave Rand--and the bones of their former company--around 1920 to try their hand at the band organ game one last time with their <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/collections/show/22">Artizan Factories Inc.</a> venture in 1922.</div> Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource North Tonawanda Musical Instrument Works band organ, photo (c1910).jpg Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1910 organ https://nthistory.com/files/original/15f0ce32c4b92c20749c1da6ddd3f525.jpg 9a23caf9b629b1bf4512d29c1e210aa0 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource North Tonawanda Musical Instrument Works Description An account of the resource <img class="cover" src="http://www.nthistory.com/custom/cover/10.jpg" alt="North Tonawanda Musical Instrument Works, colorized by the webmaster." /> North Tonawanda Musical Instrument Works factory at 435 Payne Avenue, c1913; photo colorized by the webmaster. <div>(1906-1919) The North Tonawanda Musical Instrument Works produces military band organs, player pianos, organs for (still silent) "moving picture" theaters and more. The factory is the third automatic musical instrument manufacturer in the city, starting about a year after the <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/collections/show/75">Niagara Musical Instrument Manufacturing Company</a>. Like Niagara, NTMIW is partially comprised of men who have worked with <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/collections/show/24">de Kleist's Musical Instrument Works</a> (president John Birnie had been secretary-treasurer for de Kleist). According to an article in this set, NTMIW originally operates out of "the Williams plant on the Ellicott Creek." They incorporate in 1906, and in the second half of 1907 build a substantial four-story factory. In 1911 that factory is tripled (articles suggest the work is not completed until early 1912). Although larger than Niagara, NTMIW will always be a distant second behind de Kleist and Wurlitzer. In 1918, NTMIW is acquired by the Rand Visible Records Company. Rand continues the musical manufacturing business, and the former NTMIW leadership at first sticks around. Rand's press officers kick into high gear, founding a monthly internal company magazine, <a href="http://nthistory.com/items/show/1192">All of Us</a>, apparently aimed at easing the culture change. In spite of this gesture, NTMIW founding officer Stillman C. Woodruff and others leave Rand--and the bones of their former company--around 1920 to try their hand at the band organ game one last time with their <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/collections/show/22">Artizan Factories Inc.</a> venture in 1922.</div> Photo A photographic depiction of a person or place. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource North Tonawanda Musical Instrument Works, organ and truck, photo (c1913).jpg Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1913 automobile organ https://nthistory.com/files/original/3585e100cbd1518f2ab4f294dcf3a969.jpg 41090b9c582ac1e428896ba14f61cc82 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource North Tonawanda Barrel Organ Factory (1893-1903) Description An account of the resource <img class="cover" src="http://www.nthistory.com/custom/cover/24d.jpg" alt="North Tonawanda Barrel Organ Factory, 1893 (colorized by webmaster)" />Nucleus of Wurlitzer: The North Tonawanda Barrel Organ Factory in 1893. It still stands in 2023. The first of its kind in America, the North Tonawanda Barrel Organ Factory makes automatic musical instruments to provide music for Allan Herschell's world-famous carousels. Led by the fiery Prussian gentleman-genius Eugene de Kleist, the firm survives an early national Depression to succeed beyond its wildest expectations with the help of a musical family from Ohio named the "Wurlitzers." <div class="img-caption-container"><img src="http://nthistory.com/files/square_thumbnails/cc9e0bcd6b738bbe4ed82bac5ef50e91.jpg" alt="Image description" /> <div class="caption">De Kleist band organ, c.1900.</div> </div> Portable music of another era Before the phonograph and radio, the next best thing to a live orchestra or marching band is a "band organ" or "orchestrion." Essentially giant music boxes with drums, pipe organs, brass horns and more, these devices are popular in Europe for centuries before being produced in the New World in 1893 with the North Tonawanda Barrel Organ Factory. The factory is built in the spring of 1893 by local merry-go-round makers the <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/collections/show/73">Armitage-Herschell Company</a> in the Sawyer's Creek / Martinsville area in the northeast of the recently incorporated City of North Tonawanda. To oversee operations, Armitage-Herschell recruits a German organ maker from London with whom they have been acquainted: the talented <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/936">Eugene de Kleist</a>. With a small crew of workers culled from England and the surrounding Martinsville farms, the North Tonawanda Barrel Organ Factory also makes organs for churches, offers repairs on existing organs, and makes the pinned barrels that contain the music the organs play. After about a year, Armitage-Herschell sign ownership of the enterprise over to their capable superintendent. Meet the Wurlitzers Business is middling until 1897, when de Kleist meets a decades-old musical retail concern from Cincinnati that will prove a valuable partner: the Rudolph Wurlitzer Company. The story goes that de Kleist was looking to interest the U. S. Army in buying his bugles, which were made as part of many of his band organs. de Kleist is told that the Wurlitzer company already has that business, so he approaches Wurlitzer, and is able to sell them some of his bugles. He also tries to interest Wurlitzer in his band organs, but they ask if he coud instead produce a coin-operated piano for use in taverns and restaurants. After over a year in development, the first "Tonophones" are ready in 1898, and are an immediate success. (Hear <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/1023">Farny Wurlitzer</a> tell this story himself <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5dXbpPM7T0&t=5m29s" target="_blank" rel="noopener">in this remarkable speech from 1964</a>). Similiar instruments, such as the Pianino, follow, and the small factory begins to grow, and over the next few years establishes the northwest corner of the massive Wurlitzer plant still standing in North Tonawanda today. The de Kleist Musical Instrument Manufacturing Company In 1903, the Barrel Organ Factory incorporates as the de Kleist Musical Instrument Manufacturing Company, with investment from banker James Thompson and some new top brass. Wurlitzer's interest in the North Tonawanda plant increases as Eugene de Kleist's seems to wane (<a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/936">see de Kleist's bio</a> for more on this). In 1905 a group of workers leaves to form the <a href="http://nthistory.com/collections/show/75">Niagara Musical Instrument Manufacturing Company</a>; within a year another wave of defectors forms the <a href="http://nthistory.com/collections/show/10">North Tonawanda Musical Instrument Works</a>. 1908 begins auspiciously: in January, de Kleist (now mayor of North Tonawanda) lavishly fetes 700 employees and their families in the new music department building. His superintendent, Paul Von Rohl, delivers a speech in his honor, and they dance and carouse until morning light begins filtering over Sawyer's Creek. The following months will not be as good. de Kleist files a $50,000 infringement lawsuit against the aforementioned Instrument Works, but loses. In March, he leaves the aforementioned Paul Von Rohl in charge of the factory while he is off racing powerboats in Florida. de Kleist returns to suspect there has been rampant theft in his absence, and brings charges of grand larceny against Von Rohl, which are dropped, replaced by petit larceny charges, and then found unproved by a jury. In April, Mayor de Kleist accuses eight employees of stealing valuable machinery and plans from his factory, and of conspiring to start another rival factory. The summer brings more powerboating and politicking. Perhaps fearing for the security of their investment, Wurlitzer buys Eugene de Kleist out. <a href="http://nthistory.com/collections/show/52">The Rudolph Wurlitzer Manufacturing Company</a> is organized in December of 1908 with $1,000,000 capital. Advertisement A graphic or text document produced by an entity for promotional purposes. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Wurlitzer Automatic Harp, Tonophone, Pianino (c1904).jpg Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1904 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="http://www.timtrager.com">timtrager.com</a> organ https://nthistory.com/files/original/cc14e212762cc0b39caf50ae242f193c.jpg 4329bd612cdd270a02b3b35dc69861dd Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource North Tonawanda Barrel Organ Factory (1893-1903) Description An account of the resource <img class="cover" src="http://www.nthistory.com/custom/cover/24d.jpg" alt="North Tonawanda Barrel Organ Factory, 1893 (colorized by webmaster)" />Nucleus of Wurlitzer: The North Tonawanda Barrel Organ Factory in 1893. It still stands in 2023. The first of its kind in America, the North Tonawanda Barrel Organ Factory makes automatic musical instruments to provide music for Allan Herschell's world-famous carousels. Led by the fiery Prussian gentleman-genius Eugene de Kleist, the firm survives an early national Depression to succeed beyond its wildest expectations with the help of a musical family from Ohio named the "Wurlitzers." <div class="img-caption-container"><img src="http://nthistory.com/files/square_thumbnails/cc9e0bcd6b738bbe4ed82bac5ef50e91.jpg" alt="Image description" /> <div class="caption">De Kleist band organ, c.1900.</div> </div> Portable music of another era Before the phonograph and radio, the next best thing to a live orchestra or marching band is a "band organ" or "orchestrion." Essentially giant music boxes with drums, pipe organs, brass horns and more, these devices are popular in Europe for centuries before being produced in the New World in 1893 with the North Tonawanda Barrel Organ Factory. The factory is built in the spring of 1893 by local merry-go-round makers the <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/collections/show/73">Armitage-Herschell Company</a> in the Sawyer's Creek / Martinsville area in the northeast of the recently incorporated City of North Tonawanda. To oversee operations, Armitage-Herschell recruits a German organ maker from London with whom they have been acquainted: the talented <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/936">Eugene de Kleist</a>. With a small crew of workers culled from England and the surrounding Martinsville farms, the North Tonawanda Barrel Organ Factory also makes organs for churches, offers repairs on existing organs, and makes the pinned barrels that contain the music the organs play. After about a year, Armitage-Herschell sign ownership of the enterprise over to their capable superintendent. Meet the Wurlitzers Business is middling until 1897, when de Kleist meets a decades-old musical retail concern from Cincinnati that will prove a valuable partner: the Rudolph Wurlitzer Company. The story goes that de Kleist was looking to interest the U. S. Army in buying his bugles, which were made as part of many of his band organs. de Kleist is told that the Wurlitzer company already has that business, so he approaches Wurlitzer, and is able to sell them some of his bugles. He also tries to interest Wurlitzer in his band organs, but they ask if he coud instead produce a coin-operated piano for use in taverns and restaurants. After over a year in development, the first "Tonophones" are ready in 1898, and are an immediate success. (Hear <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/1023">Farny Wurlitzer</a> tell this story himself <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5dXbpPM7T0&t=5m29s" target="_blank" rel="noopener">in this remarkable speech from 1964</a>). Similiar instruments, such as the Pianino, follow, and the small factory begins to grow, and over the next few years establishes the northwest corner of the massive Wurlitzer plant still standing in North Tonawanda today. The de Kleist Musical Instrument Manufacturing Company In 1903, the Barrel Organ Factory incorporates as the de Kleist Musical Instrument Manufacturing Company, with investment from banker James Thompson and some new top brass. Wurlitzer's interest in the North Tonawanda plant increases as Eugene de Kleist's seems to wane (<a href="http://www.nthistory.com/items/show/936">see de Kleist's bio</a> for more on this). In 1905 a group of workers leaves to form the <a href="http://nthistory.com/collections/show/75">Niagara Musical Instrument Manufacturing Company</a>; within a year another wave of defectors forms the <a href="http://nthistory.com/collections/show/10">North Tonawanda Musical Instrument Works</a>. 1908 begins auspiciously: in January, de Kleist (now mayor of North Tonawanda) lavishly fetes 700 employees and their families in the new music department building. His superintendent, Paul Von Rohl, delivers a speech in his honor, and they dance and carouse until morning light begins filtering over Sawyer's Creek. The following months will not be as good. de Kleist files a $50,000 infringement lawsuit against the aforementioned Instrument Works, but loses. In March, he leaves the aforementioned Paul Von Rohl in charge of the factory while he is off racing powerboats in Florida. de Kleist returns to suspect there has been rampant theft in his absence, and brings charges of grand larceny against Von Rohl, which are dropped, replaced by petit larceny charges, and then found unproved by a jury. In April, Mayor de Kleist accuses eight employees of stealing valuable machinery and plans from his factory, and of conspiring to start another rival factory. The summer brings more powerboating and politicking. Perhaps fearing for the security of their investment, Wurlitzer buys Eugene de Kleist out. <a href="http://nthistory.com/collections/show/52">The Rudolph Wurlitzer Manufacturing Company</a> is organized in December of 1908 with $1,000,000 capital. Article Text appearing in a newspaper. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource North Tonawanda Barrel Organ Factory, photo, article (Illustrated Industrial, HST, 1897).jpg Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1897 organ https://nthistory.com/files/original/7737a2457cebcbaaa529e8a7c35d86e6.jpg 0c85bf74a58b5c0c5e32fbbf4c8db722 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Artizan Factories Inc. (583 Division Street) Description An account of the resource <img class="cover" src="http://nthistory.com/custom/cover/22.jpg" alt="Artizan Factories photo, 1926" /> The only known photograph of the Artizan Factories Inc. building in its seven years of operation; published in a 1926 industrial survey. From the Historical Society of the Tonawandas. The red brick building at 583 Division Street was built for music. <div class="img-caption-container"><img src="http://nthistory.com/files/square_thumbnails/7737a2457cebcbaaa529e8a7c35d86e6.jpg" alt="A colorfully painted Style D band organ" /> <div class="caption">A "Style D" band organ on display at the Herschell Carrousel Factory Museum, 2015</div> </div> Artizan Factories Inc. makes "automatic" musical instruments for carousels, fairgrounds, and parks. The men are refugees, so to speak, of the <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/collections/show/10">North Tonawanda Musical Instrument Works</a>, which was purchased by the Rand Visible Records Company in 1918 and converted to making office supplies. Artizan president Stillman C. Woodruff was the first secretary and treasurer for the <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/collections/show/24">de Kleist Musical Instrument Mfg. Co.</a> in 1903 and served in a similar capacity for the <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/collections/show/10">North Tonawanda Musical Instrument Works </a>. Vice president Frank Morganti and treasurer Christian Maerten have also made the rounds of the local organ factories, and each have 30 years of firsthand experience. Like the North Tonawanda Musical Instrument Works' original factory, the single-elevator Artizan building is designed to accomodate expansion. However, in its case, an expansion is never necessary. In spite of its talented leadership, the competition from the nationwide Wurlitzer and changing tastes in public entertainment prove too much. After years of economic hardship, the venture fails in 1929. Other concerns have owned the building through the decades. Little trace remains of the original work done here. The first floor was removed and merged with the basement, as seen in a video tour in this collection. Doug Hershberger of the Herschell Carrousel Factory Museum paid a visit in 2006, and found much the same, as he recorded in the <a href="http://www.mmdigest.com/Archives/Digests/200811/2008.11.29.06.html">Mechanical Music Digest</a> that year: <blockquote>Inspection of the interior of the factory building is an exercise in frustration to a historian. I have never seen a building so utterly devoid of clues or artifacts or interest. There was not a partition, a workbench, a sign painted on the wall, anything that gave a clue as to the original occupant of the building. I'm not sure there was even paint on the wall. Moreover, even the first floor was gone! One of the post-Artizan owners of the property needed a higher ceiling, so he removed the first floor, making the basement ceiling the underside of the second level. Mr. Wagner was generous with his time and provided some interesting background on the building. He moved his business to the site in 1986. He said the previous owner was a pallet manufacturer who had gone bankrupt. The elevator had been sold off for income. Some of the (hardwood?) flooring had been removed by someone for the construction of a summer home. There were two boilers associated with the building, but evidently not within the four-story structure. Both have been removed and one boiler room is now used as a compressor room.</blockquote> Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Artizan Factories Inc. "Style D" band organ, photo (Herschell Carrousel Factory Museum, 2015).jpg Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2015 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <ul> <li>Photo by Dennis Reed Jr</li> <li>Organ on display at the <a href="http://carrouselmuseum.org">Herschell Carrousel Factory Museum</a> of North Tonawanda, NY</li> </ul> organ https://nthistory.com/files/original/a9a819d97260937960681003c4cdb733.jpg 8fb079b9b55c3926c9bf067d51de0e36 https://nthistory.com/files/original/c2ecabaf4601780fda1412c93ae7fbb5.jpg 59cd1213a0251f27c8872e7b2b12e687 https://nthistory.com/files/original/79a5354d57551046a64bfeaf25bc6a25.jpg 6aec860daab7591b2f36784735aeee13 https://nthistory.com/files/original/9fc5d313a071935bf13db1b13c53561c.jpg 11b16998bea6b584a0aa8bc806563323 https://nthistory.com/files/original/e7b08bb1c14df67772b911065dd525d7.jpg 4f63f65b955af5d1c4386da89bc22111 https://nthistory.com/files/original/bc90d6969f96bfee5c06cbb9566530d1.jpg 63bd7c826a3dceeaaeeaa6888e2a9889 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Artizan Factories Inc. (583 Division Street) Description An account of the resource <img class="cover" src="http://nthistory.com/custom/cover/22.jpg" alt="Artizan Factories photo, 1926" /> The only known photograph of the Artizan Factories Inc. building in its seven years of operation; published in a 1926 industrial survey. From the Historical Society of the Tonawandas. The red brick building at 583 Division Street was built for music. <div class="img-caption-container"><img src="http://nthistory.com/files/square_thumbnails/7737a2457cebcbaaa529e8a7c35d86e6.jpg" alt="A colorfully painted Style D band organ" /> <div class="caption">A "Style D" band organ on display at the Herschell Carrousel Factory Museum, 2015</div> </div> Artizan Factories Inc. makes "automatic" musical instruments for carousels, fairgrounds, and parks. The men are refugees, so to speak, of the <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/collections/show/10">North Tonawanda Musical Instrument Works</a>, which was purchased by the Rand Visible Records Company in 1918 and converted to making office supplies. Artizan president Stillman C. Woodruff was the first secretary and treasurer for the <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/collections/show/24">de Kleist Musical Instrument Mfg. Co.</a> in 1903 and served in a similar capacity for the <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/collections/show/10">North Tonawanda Musical Instrument Works </a>. Vice president Frank Morganti and treasurer Christian Maerten have also made the rounds of the local organ factories, and each have 30 years of firsthand experience. Like the North Tonawanda Musical Instrument Works' original factory, the single-elevator Artizan building is designed to accomodate expansion. However, in its case, an expansion is never necessary. In spite of its talented leadership, the competition from the nationwide Wurlitzer and changing tastes in public entertainment prove too much. After years of economic hardship, the venture fails in 1929. Other concerns have owned the building through the decades. Little trace remains of the original work done here. The first floor was removed and merged with the basement, as seen in a video tour in this collection. Doug Hershberger of the Herschell Carrousel Factory Museum paid a visit in 2006, and found much the same, as he recorded in the <a href="http://www.mmdigest.com/Archives/Digests/200811/2008.11.29.06.html">Mechanical Music Digest</a> that year: <blockquote>Inspection of the interior of the factory building is an exercise in frustration to a historian. I have never seen a building so utterly devoid of clues or artifacts or interest. There was not a partition, a workbench, a sign painted on the wall, anything that gave a clue as to the original occupant of the building. I'm not sure there was even paint on the wall. Moreover, even the first floor was gone! One of the post-Artizan owners of the property needed a higher ceiling, so he removed the first floor, making the basement ceiling the underside of the second level. Mr. Wagner was generous with his time and provided some interesting background on the building. He moved his business to the site in 1986. He said the previous owner was a pallet manufacturer who had gone bankrupt. The elevator had been sold off for income. Some of the (hardwood?) flooring had been removed by someone for the construction of a summer home. There were two boilers associated with the building, but evidently not within the four-story structure. Both have been removed and one boiler room is now used as a compressor room.</blockquote> Object Photos or illustrations of artifacts of an entity. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Improved Military Band, Artizan Factories Inc., pamphlet with photos (c1924).jpg Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1924 organ https://nthistory.com/files/original/68d38b11b87f37232a8ab2ad254435fa.jpg acc1b6de48502d56a71b188643448c91 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Wurlitzer Manufacturing Company Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Wurlitzer: 100 Years of Musical Achievement. Rudolph Wurlitzer Company. Chicago, Illinois. 1956. Description An account of the resource <img class="cover" src="../../../custom/cover/52.jpg" alt="The signature tower of the North Tonawanda plant and occasional headquarters." /> The signature tower of the North Tonawanda plant and occasional headquarters. Postcard, c.1940. Its iconic tower has presided over Sawyer's Creek and Martinsville for over 100 years. The sprawling industrial campus left behind by the world-famous Wurlitzer Manufacturing Company produced merry-go-round organs, band organs, church organs, theater organs and jukeboxes that have left an indelible mark on the world, and on generations of North Tonawandans. Wurlitzer founder Rudolph Wurlitzer (1831-1914) was a German immigrant who (after stops in New Jersey and Philadelphia) landed in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1854 at the age of 23. He worked for a bank, and down the street was a musical retail store. His father, Christian, was a successful music retailer in Germany, and Rudolph's experience told him the Ohio store's instruments were of poor quality, and priced too high. In 1856 he begins importing quality musical instruments from his family in Germany to sell at a profit in American retail stores. The business grows; Wurlitzer begins making instruments themselves for the U. S. military and for retail. The company branches out into "automatic" musical instruments, such as music boxes and player-pianos. Rudolph's three sons, Howard, Rudolph H., and Farny become involved along the way, and take on aspects of the growing family business. The youngest son, Farny, is sent to North Tonawanda to run the former <a href="http://nthistory.com/collections/show/24">de Kleist Musical Instrument Mfg. Co.</a> shortly after it is purchased by Wurlitzer in 1908. (de Kleist was building player pianos and band organs for Wurlitzer and others since 1893). Farny brings eccentric English inventor Robert Hope-Jones to the plant in 1910, initiating the worldwide success of the "Mighty Wurlitzer" theater organ, which provides sound for the silent films of the day, and entertainment in its own right. This business evaporates when sound comes to movies, and electrical sound amplification permits musical entertainment to be furnished to venues of all types much less expensively. When the Wurlitzer company finds itself overextended in the wake of the Great Depression, Farny fights to keep the North Tonawanda facility open. In 1934 he strikes a deal with Homer Capehart to manufacture his automatic phonograph, which becomes the iconic Wurlitzer jukebox. Under his leadership the company also produces a successful line of electronic organs for home use, and the North Tonawanda plant becomes the flagship of the Wurlitzer factories, with 3,000 employees. After his death in 1972, jukebox and organ production are phased out, leaving 200 employees in 1974. By 1975, all manufacturing at the North Tonawanda plant is stopped, and by August 1976, all company activities are removed to other locations. Photo A photographic depiction of a person or place. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Wurlitzer North Tonawanda plant, photo (NTPL, c1972).jpg Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1972 organ https://nthistory.com/files/original/b154b019384eadb9b8093fcb6bb780b9.jpg 1de43a31a458f4804d5ae2fb8f81f43a Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Smith Organ Company, Inc., map detail (Sanborn Map Company, 1913).jpg Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1913 organ https://nthistory.com/files/original/7ea95bdef8780bbc2c56701cb0d7767a.jpg 98787f1902f64b483466b1208818fb65 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Wurlitzer Manufacturing Company Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Wurlitzer: 100 Years of Musical Achievement. Rudolph Wurlitzer Company. Chicago, Illinois. 1956. Description An account of the resource <img class="cover" src="../../../custom/cover/52.jpg" alt="The signature tower of the North Tonawanda plant and occasional headquarters." /> The signature tower of the North Tonawanda plant and occasional headquarters. Postcard, c.1940. Its iconic tower has presided over Sawyer's Creek and Martinsville for over 100 years. The sprawling industrial campus left behind by the world-famous Wurlitzer Manufacturing Company produced merry-go-round organs, band organs, church organs, theater organs and jukeboxes that have left an indelible mark on the world, and on generations of North Tonawandans. Wurlitzer founder Rudolph Wurlitzer (1831-1914) was a German immigrant who (after stops in New Jersey and Philadelphia) landed in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1854 at the age of 23. He worked for a bank, and down the street was a musical retail store. His father, Christian, was a successful music retailer in Germany, and Rudolph's experience told him the Ohio store's instruments were of poor quality, and priced too high. In 1856 he begins importing quality musical instruments from his family in Germany to sell at a profit in American retail stores. The business grows; Wurlitzer begins making instruments themselves for the U. S. military and for retail. The company branches out into "automatic" musical instruments, such as music boxes and player-pianos. Rudolph's three sons, Howard, Rudolph H., and Farny become involved along the way, and take on aspects of the growing family business. The youngest son, Farny, is sent to North Tonawanda to run the former <a href="http://nthistory.com/collections/show/24">de Kleist Musical Instrument Mfg. Co.</a> shortly after it is purchased by Wurlitzer in 1908. (de Kleist was building player pianos and band organs for Wurlitzer and others since 1893). Farny brings eccentric English inventor Robert Hope-Jones to the plant in 1910, initiating the worldwide success of the "Mighty Wurlitzer" theater organ, which provides sound for the silent films of the day, and entertainment in its own right. This business evaporates when sound comes to movies, and electrical sound amplification permits musical entertainment to be furnished to venues of all types much less expensively. When the Wurlitzer company finds itself overextended in the wake of the Great Depression, Farny fights to keep the North Tonawanda facility open. In 1934 he strikes a deal with Homer Capehart to manufacture his automatic phonograph, which becomes the iconic Wurlitzer jukebox. Under his leadership the company also produces a successful line of electronic organs for home use, and the North Tonawanda plant becomes the flagship of the Wurlitzer factories, with 3,000 employees. After his death in 1972, jukebox and organ production are phased out, leaving 200 employees in 1974. By 1975, all manufacturing at the North Tonawanda plant is stopped, and by August 1976, all company activities are removed to other locations. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The End of an Era, epitaph in black label in NTPL Wurlitzer binder (c1975).jpg Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1975 organ https://nthistory.com/files/original/536e520d601df00fc4cc9aba5034e442.jpg e2b12492ca5bf02e07547c8743f22634 https://nthistory.com/files/original/8653310ef262f289ea5dcc33bf482133.jpg ea26e1a17b1fcda11692b0b427951d34 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Wurlitzer Manufacturing Company Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Wurlitzer: 100 Years of Musical Achievement. Rudolph Wurlitzer Company. Chicago, Illinois. 1956. Description An account of the resource <img class="cover" src="../../../custom/cover/52.jpg" alt="The signature tower of the North Tonawanda plant and occasional headquarters." /> The signature tower of the North Tonawanda plant and occasional headquarters. Postcard, c.1940. Its iconic tower has presided over Sawyer's Creek and Martinsville for over 100 years. The sprawling industrial campus left behind by the world-famous Wurlitzer Manufacturing Company produced merry-go-round organs, band organs, church organs, theater organs and jukeboxes that have left an indelible mark on the world, and on generations of North Tonawandans. Wurlitzer founder Rudolph Wurlitzer (1831-1914) was a German immigrant who (after stops in New Jersey and Philadelphia) landed in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1854 at the age of 23. He worked for a bank, and down the street was a musical retail store. His father, Christian, was a successful music retailer in Germany, and Rudolph's experience told him the Ohio store's instruments were of poor quality, and priced too high. In 1856 he begins importing quality musical instruments from his family in Germany to sell at a profit in American retail stores. The business grows; Wurlitzer begins making instruments themselves for the U. S. military and for retail. The company branches out into "automatic" musical instruments, such as music boxes and player-pianos. Rudolph's three sons, Howard, Rudolph H., and Farny become involved along the way, and take on aspects of the growing family business. The youngest son, Farny, is sent to North Tonawanda to run the former <a href="http://nthistory.com/collections/show/24">de Kleist Musical Instrument Mfg. Co.</a> shortly after it is purchased by Wurlitzer in 1908. (de Kleist was building player pianos and band organs for Wurlitzer and others since 1893). Farny brings eccentric English inventor Robert Hope-Jones to the plant in 1910, initiating the worldwide success of the "Mighty Wurlitzer" theater organ, which provides sound for the silent films of the day, and entertainment in its own right. This business evaporates when sound comes to movies, and electrical sound amplification permits musical entertainment to be furnished to venues of all types much less expensively. When the Wurlitzer company finds itself overextended in the wake of the Great Depression, Farny fights to keep the North Tonawanda facility open. In 1934 he strikes a deal with Homer Capehart to manufacture his automatic phonograph, which becomes the iconic Wurlitzer jukebox. Under his leadership the company also produces a successful line of electronic organs for home use, and the North Tonawanda plant becomes the flagship of the Wurlitzer factories, with 3,000 employees. After his death in 1972, jukebox and organ production are phased out, leaving 200 employees in 1974. By 1975, all manufacturing at the North Tonawanda plant is stopped, and by August 1976, all company activities are removed to other locations. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Farny Wurlitzer 85th birthday, photo (NTPL, 1968).jpg Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1968 organ https://nthistory.com/files/original/756e4da8c20389a0e81f1720f4857878.jpg 28b7100fd10af3874b6b2d9faab79e6d Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Wurlitzer Manufacturing Company Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Wurlitzer: 100 Years of Musical Achievement. Rudolph Wurlitzer Company. Chicago, Illinois. 1956. Description An account of the resource <img class="cover" src="../../../custom/cover/52.jpg" alt="The signature tower of the North Tonawanda plant and occasional headquarters." /> The signature tower of the North Tonawanda plant and occasional headquarters. Postcard, c.1940. Its iconic tower has presided over Sawyer's Creek and Martinsville for over 100 years. The sprawling industrial campus left behind by the world-famous Wurlitzer Manufacturing Company produced merry-go-round organs, band organs, church organs, theater organs and jukeboxes that have left an indelible mark on the world, and on generations of North Tonawandans. Wurlitzer founder Rudolph Wurlitzer (1831-1914) was a German immigrant who (after stops in New Jersey and Philadelphia) landed in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1854 at the age of 23. He worked for a bank, and down the street was a musical retail store. His father, Christian, was a successful music retailer in Germany, and Rudolph's experience told him the Ohio store's instruments were of poor quality, and priced too high. In 1856 he begins importing quality musical instruments from his family in Germany to sell at a profit in American retail stores. The business grows; Wurlitzer begins making instruments themselves for the U. S. military and for retail. The company branches out into "automatic" musical instruments, such as music boxes and player-pianos. Rudolph's three sons, Howard, Rudolph H., and Farny become involved along the way, and take on aspects of the growing family business. The youngest son, Farny, is sent to North Tonawanda to run the former <a href="http://nthistory.com/collections/show/24">de Kleist Musical Instrument Mfg. Co.</a> shortly after it is purchased by Wurlitzer in 1908. (de Kleist was building player pianos and band organs for Wurlitzer and others since 1893). Farny brings eccentric English inventor Robert Hope-Jones to the plant in 1910, initiating the worldwide success of the "Mighty Wurlitzer" theater organ, which provides sound for the silent films of the day, and entertainment in its own right. This business evaporates when sound comes to movies, and electrical sound amplification permits musical entertainment to be furnished to venues of all types much less expensively. When the Wurlitzer company finds itself overextended in the wake of the Great Depression, Farny fights to keep the North Tonawanda facility open. In 1934 he strikes a deal with Homer Capehart to manufacture his automatic phonograph, which becomes the iconic Wurlitzer jukebox. Under his leadership the company also produces a successful line of electronic organs for home use, and the North Tonawanda plant becomes the flagship of the Wurlitzer factories, with 3,000 employees. After his death in 1972, jukebox and organ production are phased out, leaving 200 employees in 1974. By 1975, all manufacturing at the North Tonawanda plant is stopped, and by August 1976, all company activities are removed to other locations. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Wurlitzer, Farny Reginald.jpg Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <ul> <li>Palkovic, Mark. Wurlitzer of Cincinnati. Charleston, South Carolina: The History Press, 2015.</li> <li>Photo from North Tonawanda Public Library</li> <li>Birth and death information from <a href="http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=8709196">Find a Grave</a></li> </ul> Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1965 Description An account of the resource (1883–1972) The youngest son of founder Rudolph Wurlitzer, Farny is sent to North Tonawanda to run the former de Kleist Musical Instrument Mfg. Co. shortly after it is purchased by Wurlitzer in 1908. Farny brings eccentric English inventor Robert Hope-Jones to the plant in 1910, initiating the worldwide success of the "Mighty Wurlitzer" theater organ. When the Wurlitzer company finds itself overextended in the wake of the Great Depression, Farny fights to keep the North Tonawanda facility open. In 1934 he strikes a deal with Homer Capehart to manufacture his automatic phonograph, which becomes the iconic Wurlitzer jukebox. Under his leadership the company also produces a successful line of electronic organs for home use, and the North Tonawanda plant becomes the flagship of the Wurlitzer factories, with 3,000 employees. After his death in 1972, jukebox and organ production are phased out, leaving 200 employees in 1974. By 1975, all manufacturing at the North Tonawanda plant is stopped, and by August 1976, all company activities are removed to other locations. organ https://nthistory.com/files/original/ea91fd8b00bc8ded7cd23a194c862271.jpg 9a9946f7e0ed7c01593cddc9359fdc39 https://nthistory.com/files/original/b2f5bfc3c8079981590c61b6a725c457.jpg 63037324ddbce0001e2702a469b5e4e5 https://nthistory.com/files/original/8be9139b17b0cb2586076ad40b87dc0c.jpg dfbd15eae32e4969aa0a166d2472ab73 https://nthistory.com/files/original/558054eae3a12b071e9825035954afaa.jpg 2dcbd4e3dc0f44cdfd4efb477637e152 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Wurlitzer Manufacturing Company Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Wurlitzer: 100 Years of Musical Achievement. Rudolph Wurlitzer Company. Chicago, Illinois. 1956. Description An account of the resource <img class="cover" src="../../../custom/cover/52.jpg" alt="The signature tower of the North Tonawanda plant and occasional headquarters." /> The signature tower of the North Tonawanda plant and occasional headquarters. Postcard, c.1940. Its iconic tower has presided over Sawyer's Creek and Martinsville for over 100 years. The sprawling industrial campus left behind by the world-famous Wurlitzer Manufacturing Company produced merry-go-round organs, band organs, church organs, theater organs and jukeboxes that have left an indelible mark on the world, and on generations of North Tonawandans. Wurlitzer founder Rudolph Wurlitzer (1831-1914) was a German immigrant who (after stops in New Jersey and Philadelphia) landed in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1854 at the age of 23. He worked for a bank, and down the street was a musical retail store. His father, Christian, was a successful music retailer in Germany, and Rudolph's experience told him the Ohio store's instruments were of poor quality, and priced too high. In 1856 he begins importing quality musical instruments from his family in Germany to sell at a profit in American retail stores. The business grows; Wurlitzer begins making instruments themselves for the U. S. military and for retail. The company branches out into "automatic" musical instruments, such as music boxes and player-pianos. Rudolph's three sons, Howard, Rudolph H., and Farny become involved along the way, and take on aspects of the growing family business. The youngest son, Farny, is sent to North Tonawanda to run the former <a href="http://nthistory.com/collections/show/24">de Kleist Musical Instrument Mfg. Co.</a> shortly after it is purchased by Wurlitzer in 1908. (de Kleist was building player pianos and band organs for Wurlitzer and others since 1893). Farny brings eccentric English inventor Robert Hope-Jones to the plant in 1910, initiating the worldwide success of the "Mighty Wurlitzer" theater organ, which provides sound for the silent films of the day, and entertainment in its own right. This business evaporates when sound comes to movies, and electrical sound amplification permits musical entertainment to be furnished to venues of all types much less expensively. When the Wurlitzer company finds itself overextended in the wake of the Great Depression, Farny fights to keep the North Tonawanda facility open. In 1934 he strikes a deal with Homer Capehart to manufacture his automatic phonograph, which becomes the iconic Wurlitzer jukebox. Under his leadership the company also produces a successful line of electronic organs for home use, and the North Tonawanda plant becomes the flagship of the Wurlitzer factories, with 3,000 employees. After his death in 1972, jukebox and organ production are phased out, leaving 200 employees in 1974. By 1975, all manufacturing at the North Tonawanda plant is stopped, and by August 1976, all company activities are removed to other locations. Article Text appearing in a newspaper. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Wurlitzer press releases on Farny, R. C. Rolfing, Jukebox Family Tree, company origins and factories (NTPL, 1956).jpg Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1956 organ https://nthistory.com/files/original/e62729a51a373cc2475fabe0acdb53c5.jpg 018846c123ed308481243c5b21d9d887 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Artizan Factories Inc. (583 Division Street) Description An account of the resource <img class="cover" src="http://nthistory.com/custom/cover/22.jpg" alt="Artizan Factories photo, 1926" /> The only known photograph of the Artizan Factories Inc. building in its seven years of operation; published in a 1926 industrial survey. From the Historical Society of the Tonawandas. The red brick building at 583 Division Street was built for music. <div class="img-caption-container"><img src="http://nthistory.com/files/square_thumbnails/7737a2457cebcbaaa529e8a7c35d86e6.jpg" alt="A colorfully painted Style D band organ" /> <div class="caption">A "Style D" band organ on display at the Herschell Carrousel Factory Museum, 2015</div> </div> Artizan Factories Inc. makes "automatic" musical instruments for carousels, fairgrounds, and parks. The men are refugees, so to speak, of the <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/collections/show/10">North Tonawanda Musical Instrument Works</a>, which was purchased by the Rand Visible Records Company in 1918 and converted to making office supplies. Artizan president Stillman C. Woodruff was the first secretary and treasurer for the <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/collections/show/24">de Kleist Musical Instrument Mfg. Co.</a> in 1903 and served in a similar capacity for the <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/collections/show/10">North Tonawanda Musical Instrument Works </a>. Vice president Frank Morganti and treasurer Christian Maerten have also made the rounds of the local organ factories, and each have 30 years of firsthand experience. Like the North Tonawanda Musical Instrument Works' original factory, the single-elevator Artizan building is designed to accomodate expansion. However, in its case, an expansion is never necessary. In spite of its talented leadership, the competition from the nationwide Wurlitzer and changing tastes in public entertainment prove too much. After years of economic hardship, the venture fails in 1929. Other concerns have owned the building through the decades. Little trace remains of the original work done here. The first floor was removed and merged with the basement, as seen in a video tour in this collection. Doug Hershberger of the Herschell Carrousel Factory Museum paid a visit in 2006, and found much the same, as he recorded in the <a href="http://www.mmdigest.com/Archives/Digests/200811/2008.11.29.06.html">Mechanical Music Digest</a> that year: <blockquote>Inspection of the interior of the factory building is an exercise in frustration to a historian. I have never seen a building so utterly devoid of clues or artifacts or interest. There was not a partition, a workbench, a sign painted on the wall, anything that gave a clue as to the original occupant of the building. I'm not sure there was even paint on the wall. Moreover, even the first floor was gone! One of the post-Artizan owners of the property needed a higher ceiling, so he removed the first floor, making the basement ceiling the underside of the second level. Mr. Wagner was generous with his time and provided some interesting background on the building. He moved his business to the site in 1986. He said the previous owner was a pallet manufacturer who had gone bankrupt. The elevator had been sold off for income. Some of the (hardwood?) flooring had been removed by someone for the construction of a summer home. There were two boilers associated with the building, but evidently not within the four-story structure. Both have been removed and one boiler room is now used as a compressor room.</blockquote> Advertisement A graphic or text document produced by an entity for promotional purposes. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Artizan Factories Inc. Style D catalog view (c1925).jpg Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1925 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="http://www.timtrager.com">timtrager.com</a> organ https://nthistory.com/files/original/f6ee9e0f50c9f0f60830c89ff78eecee.jpg d3025d3c8872e5f01575124861fbdadd Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Artizan Factories Inc. (583 Division Street) Description An account of the resource <img class="cover" src="http://nthistory.com/custom/cover/22.jpg" alt="Artizan Factories photo, 1926" /> The only known photograph of the Artizan Factories Inc. building in its seven years of operation; published in a 1926 industrial survey. From the Historical Society of the Tonawandas. The red brick building at 583 Division Street was built for music. <div class="img-caption-container"><img src="http://nthistory.com/files/square_thumbnails/7737a2457cebcbaaa529e8a7c35d86e6.jpg" alt="A colorfully painted Style D band organ" /> <div class="caption">A "Style D" band organ on display at the Herschell Carrousel Factory Museum, 2015</div> </div> Artizan Factories Inc. makes "automatic" musical instruments for carousels, fairgrounds, and parks. The men are refugees, so to speak, of the <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/collections/show/10">North Tonawanda Musical Instrument Works</a>, which was purchased by the Rand Visible Records Company in 1918 and converted to making office supplies. Artizan president Stillman C. Woodruff was the first secretary and treasurer for the <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/collections/show/24">de Kleist Musical Instrument Mfg. Co.</a> in 1903 and served in a similar capacity for the <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/collections/show/10">North Tonawanda Musical Instrument Works </a>. Vice president Frank Morganti and treasurer Christian Maerten have also made the rounds of the local organ factories, and each have 30 years of firsthand experience. Like the North Tonawanda Musical Instrument Works' original factory, the single-elevator Artizan building is designed to accomodate expansion. However, in its case, an expansion is never necessary. In spite of its talented leadership, the competition from the nationwide Wurlitzer and changing tastes in public entertainment prove too much. After years of economic hardship, the venture fails in 1929. Other concerns have owned the building through the decades. Little trace remains of the original work done here. The first floor was removed and merged with the basement, as seen in a video tour in this collection. Doug Hershberger of the Herschell Carrousel Factory Museum paid a visit in 2006, and found much the same, as he recorded in the <a href="http://www.mmdigest.com/Archives/Digests/200811/2008.11.29.06.html">Mechanical Music Digest</a> that year: <blockquote>Inspection of the interior of the factory building is an exercise in frustration to a historian. I have never seen a building so utterly devoid of clues or artifacts or interest. There was not a partition, a workbench, a sign painted on the wall, anything that gave a clue as to the original occupant of the building. I'm not sure there was even paint on the wall. Moreover, even the first floor was gone! One of the post-Artizan owners of the property needed a higher ceiling, so he removed the first floor, making the basement ceiling the underside of the second level. Mr. Wagner was generous with his time and provided some interesting background on the building. He moved his business to the site in 1986. He said the previous owner was a pallet manufacturer who had gone bankrupt. The elevator had been sold off for income. Some of the (hardwood?) flooring had been removed by someone for the construction of a summer home. There were two boilers associated with the building, but evidently not within the four-story structure. Both have been removed and one boiler room is now used as a compressor room.</blockquote> Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Artizan Factories Inc. Style D band organ, photo (c1925).jpg Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1925 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="http://www.timtrager.com">timtrager.com</a> organ https://nthistory.com/files/original/bed9d2d8c98ef8030d752f1a256870d7.jpg a9b5da9599144572bd4dd6832f3d20b3 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Artizan Factories Inc. (583 Division Street) Description An account of the resource <img class="cover" src="http://nthistory.com/custom/cover/22.jpg" alt="Artizan Factories photo, 1926" /> The only known photograph of the Artizan Factories Inc. building in its seven years of operation; published in a 1926 industrial survey. From the Historical Society of the Tonawandas. The red brick building at 583 Division Street was built for music. <div class="img-caption-container"><img src="http://nthistory.com/files/square_thumbnails/7737a2457cebcbaaa529e8a7c35d86e6.jpg" alt="A colorfully painted Style D band organ" /> <div class="caption">A "Style D" band organ on display at the Herschell Carrousel Factory Museum, 2015</div> </div> Artizan Factories Inc. makes "automatic" musical instruments for carousels, fairgrounds, and parks. The men are refugees, so to speak, of the <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/collections/show/10">North Tonawanda Musical Instrument Works</a>, which was purchased by the Rand Visible Records Company in 1918 and converted to making office supplies. Artizan president Stillman C. Woodruff was the first secretary and treasurer for the <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/collections/show/24">de Kleist Musical Instrument Mfg. Co.</a> in 1903 and served in a similar capacity for the <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/collections/show/10">North Tonawanda Musical Instrument Works </a>. Vice president Frank Morganti and treasurer Christian Maerten have also made the rounds of the local organ factories, and each have 30 years of firsthand experience. Like the North Tonawanda Musical Instrument Works' original factory, the single-elevator Artizan building is designed to accomodate expansion. However, in its case, an expansion is never necessary. In spite of its talented leadership, the competition from the nationwide Wurlitzer and changing tastes in public entertainment prove too much. After years of economic hardship, the venture fails in 1929. Other concerns have owned the building through the decades. Little trace remains of the original work done here. The first floor was removed and merged with the basement, as seen in a video tour in this collection. Doug Hershberger of the Herschell Carrousel Factory Museum paid a visit in 2006, and found much the same, as he recorded in the <a href="http://www.mmdigest.com/Archives/Digests/200811/2008.11.29.06.html">Mechanical Music Digest</a> that year: <blockquote>Inspection of the interior of the factory building is an exercise in frustration to a historian. I have never seen a building so utterly devoid of clues or artifacts or interest. There was not a partition, a workbench, a sign painted on the wall, anything that gave a clue as to the original occupant of the building. I'm not sure there was even paint on the wall. Moreover, even the first floor was gone! One of the post-Artizan owners of the property needed a higher ceiling, so he removed the first floor, making the basement ceiling the underside of the second level. Mr. Wagner was generous with his time and provided some interesting background on the building. He moved his business to the site in 1986. He said the previous owner was a pallet manufacturer who had gone bankrupt. The elevator had been sold off for income. Some of the (hardwood?) flooring had been removed by someone for the construction of a summer home. There were two boilers associated with the building, but evidently not within the four-story structure. Both have been removed and one boiler room is now used as a compressor room.</blockquote> Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Artizan Factories Inc. A-2 band organ facade, Shelburne Museum (1927).jpg Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1927 organ https://nthistory.com/files/original/8448ad2fbbcbedaf7297b82722f73d55.JPG 35e7c90f1f0edf0fb8d03e6144226607 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Artizan Factories Inc. (583 Division Street) Description An account of the resource <img class="cover" src="http://nthistory.com/custom/cover/22.jpg" alt="Artizan Factories photo, 1926" /> The only known photograph of the Artizan Factories Inc. building in its seven years of operation; published in a 1926 industrial survey. From the Historical Society of the Tonawandas. The red brick building at 583 Division Street was built for music. <div class="img-caption-container"><img src="http://nthistory.com/files/square_thumbnails/7737a2457cebcbaaa529e8a7c35d86e6.jpg" alt="A colorfully painted Style D band organ" /> <div class="caption">A "Style D" band organ on display at the Herschell Carrousel Factory Museum, 2015</div> </div> Artizan Factories Inc. makes "automatic" musical instruments for carousels, fairgrounds, and parks. The men are refugees, so to speak, of the <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/collections/show/10">North Tonawanda Musical Instrument Works</a>, which was purchased by the Rand Visible Records Company in 1918 and converted to making office supplies. Artizan president Stillman C. Woodruff was the first secretary and treasurer for the <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/collections/show/24">de Kleist Musical Instrument Mfg. Co.</a> in 1903 and served in a similar capacity for the <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/collections/show/10">North Tonawanda Musical Instrument Works </a>. Vice president Frank Morganti and treasurer Christian Maerten have also made the rounds of the local organ factories, and each have 30 years of firsthand experience. Like the North Tonawanda Musical Instrument Works' original factory, the single-elevator Artizan building is designed to accomodate expansion. However, in its case, an expansion is never necessary. In spite of its talented leadership, the competition from the nationwide Wurlitzer and changing tastes in public entertainment prove too much. After years of economic hardship, the venture fails in 1929. Other concerns have owned the building through the decades. Little trace remains of the original work done here. The first floor was removed and merged with the basement, as seen in a video tour in this collection. Doug Hershberger of the Herschell Carrousel Factory Museum paid a visit in 2006, and found much the same, as he recorded in the <a href="http://www.mmdigest.com/Archives/Digests/200811/2008.11.29.06.html">Mechanical Music Digest</a> that year: <blockquote>Inspection of the interior of the factory building is an exercise in frustration to a historian. I have never seen a building so utterly devoid of clues or artifacts or interest. There was not a partition, a workbench, a sign painted on the wall, anything that gave a clue as to the original occupant of the building. I'm not sure there was even paint on the wall. Moreover, even the first floor was gone! One of the post-Artizan owners of the property needed a higher ceiling, so he removed the first floor, making the basement ceiling the underside of the second level. Mr. Wagner was generous with his time and provided some interesting background on the building. He moved his business to the site in 1986. He said the previous owner was a pallet manufacturer who had gone bankrupt. The elevator had been sold off for income. Some of the (hardwood?) flooring had been removed by someone for the construction of a summer home. There were two boilers associated with the building, but evidently not within the four-story structure. Both have been removed and one boiler room is now used as a compressor room.</blockquote> Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Artizan Factories Inc., Military Band Organ music roll label, 801A (c1925).JPG Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1925 organ https://nthistory.com/files/original/37bff97f1eae4d221e7db710a72d8835.jpg 44b8eddd8ae81f3ca69797376b66edbc Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Artizan Factories Inc. (583 Division Street) Description An account of the resource <img class="cover" src="http://nthistory.com/custom/cover/22.jpg" alt="Artizan Factories photo, 1926" /> The only known photograph of the Artizan Factories Inc. building in its seven years of operation; published in a 1926 industrial survey. From the Historical Society of the Tonawandas. The red brick building at 583 Division Street was built for music. <div class="img-caption-container"><img src="http://nthistory.com/files/square_thumbnails/7737a2457cebcbaaa529e8a7c35d86e6.jpg" alt="A colorfully painted Style D band organ" /> <div class="caption">A "Style D" band organ on display at the Herschell Carrousel Factory Museum, 2015</div> </div> Artizan Factories Inc. makes "automatic" musical instruments for carousels, fairgrounds, and parks. The men are refugees, so to speak, of the <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/collections/show/10">North Tonawanda Musical Instrument Works</a>, which was purchased by the Rand Visible Records Company in 1918 and converted to making office supplies. Artizan president Stillman C. Woodruff was the first secretary and treasurer for the <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/collections/show/24">de Kleist Musical Instrument Mfg. Co.</a> in 1903 and served in a similar capacity for the <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/collections/show/10">North Tonawanda Musical Instrument Works </a>. Vice president Frank Morganti and treasurer Christian Maerten have also made the rounds of the local organ factories, and each have 30 years of firsthand experience. Like the North Tonawanda Musical Instrument Works' original factory, the single-elevator Artizan building is designed to accomodate expansion. However, in its case, an expansion is never necessary. In spite of its talented leadership, the competition from the nationwide Wurlitzer and changing tastes in public entertainment prove too much. After years of economic hardship, the venture fails in 1929. Other concerns have owned the building through the decades. Little trace remains of the original work done here. The first floor was removed and merged with the basement, as seen in a video tour in this collection. Doug Hershberger of the Herschell Carrousel Factory Museum paid a visit in 2006, and found much the same, as he recorded in the <a href="http://www.mmdigest.com/Archives/Digests/200811/2008.11.29.06.html">Mechanical Music Digest</a> that year: <blockquote>Inspection of the interior of the factory building is an exercise in frustration to a historian. I have never seen a building so utterly devoid of clues or artifacts or interest. There was not a partition, a workbench, a sign painted on the wall, anything that gave a clue as to the original occupant of the building. I'm not sure there was even paint on the wall. Moreover, even the first floor was gone! One of the post-Artizan owners of the property needed a higher ceiling, so he removed the first floor, making the basement ceiling the underside of the second level. Mr. Wagner was generous with his time and provided some interesting background on the building. He moved his business to the site in 1986. He said the previous owner was a pallet manufacturer who had gone bankrupt. The elevator had been sold off for income. Some of the (hardwood?) flooring had been removed by someone for the construction of a summer home. There were two boilers associated with the building, but evidently not within the four-story structure. Both have been removed and one boiler room is now used as a compressor room.</blockquote> Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Artizan Factories Inc., Military Band Organ music roll label (c1925).jpg Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1925 organ https://nthistory.com/files/original/e694af241a29eac89b16686f8bdabc2a.jpg f6a7285ae78937cab12e3f0b0329786a Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Artizan Factories Inc. (583 Division Street) Description An account of the resource <img class="cover" src="http://nthistory.com/custom/cover/22.jpg" alt="Artizan Factories photo, 1926" /> The only known photograph of the Artizan Factories Inc. building in its seven years of operation; published in a 1926 industrial survey. From the Historical Society of the Tonawandas. The red brick building at 583 Division Street was built for music. <div class="img-caption-container"><img src="http://nthistory.com/files/square_thumbnails/7737a2457cebcbaaa529e8a7c35d86e6.jpg" alt="A colorfully painted Style D band organ" /> <div class="caption">A "Style D" band organ on display at the Herschell Carrousel Factory Museum, 2015</div> </div> Artizan Factories Inc. makes "automatic" musical instruments for carousels, fairgrounds, and parks. The men are refugees, so to speak, of the <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/collections/show/10">North Tonawanda Musical Instrument Works</a>, which was purchased by the Rand Visible Records Company in 1918 and converted to making office supplies. Artizan president Stillman C. Woodruff was the first secretary and treasurer for the <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/collections/show/24">de Kleist Musical Instrument Mfg. Co.</a> in 1903 and served in a similar capacity for the <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/collections/show/10">North Tonawanda Musical Instrument Works </a>. Vice president Frank Morganti and treasurer Christian Maerten have also made the rounds of the local organ factories, and each have 30 years of firsthand experience. Like the North Tonawanda Musical Instrument Works' original factory, the single-elevator Artizan building is designed to accomodate expansion. However, in its case, an expansion is never necessary. In spite of its talented leadership, the competition from the nationwide Wurlitzer and changing tastes in public entertainment prove too much. After years of economic hardship, the venture fails in 1929. Other concerns have owned the building through the decades. Little trace remains of the original work done here. The first floor was removed and merged with the basement, as seen in a video tour in this collection. Doug Hershberger of the Herschell Carrousel Factory Museum paid a visit in 2006, and found much the same, as he recorded in the <a href="http://www.mmdigest.com/Archives/Digests/200811/2008.11.29.06.html">Mechanical Music Digest</a> that year: <blockquote>Inspection of the interior of the factory building is an exercise in frustration to a historian. I have never seen a building so utterly devoid of clues or artifacts or interest. There was not a partition, a workbench, a sign painted on the wall, anything that gave a clue as to the original occupant of the building. I'm not sure there was even paint on the wall. Moreover, even the first floor was gone! One of the post-Artizan owners of the property needed a higher ceiling, so he removed the first floor, making the basement ceiling the underside of the second level. Mr. Wagner was generous with his time and provided some interesting background on the building. He moved his business to the site in 1986. He said the previous owner was a pallet manufacturer who had gone bankrupt. The elevator had been sold off for income. Some of the (hardwood?) flooring had been removed by someone for the construction of a summer home. There were two boilers associated with the building, but evidently not within the four-story structure. Both have been removed and one boiler room is now used as a compressor room.</blockquote> Letters and Letterhead Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Artizan Factories Inc., letterhead (c1923).jpg Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1923 organ https://nthistory.com/files/original/6c027e531dd85dd4ff8a8ea039c8ed8d.jpg c92a5806f814d73eb08325d970325777 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Artizan Factories Inc. (583 Division Street) Description An account of the resource <img class="cover" src="http://nthistory.com/custom/cover/22.jpg" alt="Artizan Factories photo, 1926" /> The only known photograph of the Artizan Factories Inc. building in its seven years of operation; published in a 1926 industrial survey. From the Historical Society of the Tonawandas. The red brick building at 583 Division Street was built for music. <div class="img-caption-container"><img src="http://nthistory.com/files/square_thumbnails/7737a2457cebcbaaa529e8a7c35d86e6.jpg" alt="A colorfully painted Style D band organ" /> <div class="caption">A "Style D" band organ on display at the Herschell Carrousel Factory Museum, 2015</div> </div> Artizan Factories Inc. makes "automatic" musical instruments for carousels, fairgrounds, and parks. The men are refugees, so to speak, of the <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/collections/show/10">North Tonawanda Musical Instrument Works</a>, which was purchased by the Rand Visible Records Company in 1918 and converted to making office supplies. Artizan president Stillman C. Woodruff was the first secretary and treasurer for the <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/collections/show/24">de Kleist Musical Instrument Mfg. Co.</a> in 1903 and served in a similar capacity for the <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/collections/show/10">North Tonawanda Musical Instrument Works </a>. Vice president Frank Morganti and treasurer Christian Maerten have also made the rounds of the local organ factories, and each have 30 years of firsthand experience. Like the North Tonawanda Musical Instrument Works' original factory, the single-elevator Artizan building is designed to accomodate expansion. However, in its case, an expansion is never necessary. In spite of its talented leadership, the competition from the nationwide Wurlitzer and changing tastes in public entertainment prove too much. After years of economic hardship, the venture fails in 1929. Other concerns have owned the building through the decades. Little trace remains of the original work done here. The first floor was removed and merged with the basement, as seen in a video tour in this collection. Doug Hershberger of the Herschell Carrousel Factory Museum paid a visit in 2006, and found much the same, as he recorded in the <a href="http://www.mmdigest.com/Archives/Digests/200811/2008.11.29.06.html">Mechanical Music Digest</a> that year: <blockquote>Inspection of the interior of the factory building is an exercise in frustration to a historian. I have never seen a building so utterly devoid of clues or artifacts or interest. There was not a partition, a workbench, a sign painted on the wall, anything that gave a clue as to the original occupant of the building. I'm not sure there was even paint on the wall. Moreover, even the first floor was gone! One of the post-Artizan owners of the property needed a higher ceiling, so he removed the first floor, making the basement ceiling the underside of the second level. Mr. Wagner was generous with his time and provided some interesting background on the building. He moved his business to the site in 1986. He said the previous owner was a pallet manufacturer who had gone bankrupt. The elevator had been sold off for income. Some of the (hardwood?) flooring had been removed by someone for the construction of a summer home. There were two boilers associated with the building, but evidently not within the four-story structure. Both have been removed and one boiler room is now used as a compressor room.</blockquote> Advertisement A graphic or text document produced by an entity for promotional purposes. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Artizan Factories Inc., Air Calio Organ, ad, reprint (1928).jpg Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1928 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="http://www.timtrager.com">timtrager.com</a> organ https://nthistory.com/files/original/51d007ed7e59d574397dde65d26f49df.jpg ce19473ad479762dc4f140bf99e621a1 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Artizan Factories Inc. (583 Division Street) Description An account of the resource <img class="cover" src="http://nthistory.com/custom/cover/22.jpg" alt="Artizan Factories photo, 1926" /> The only known photograph of the Artizan Factories Inc. building in its seven years of operation; published in a 1926 industrial survey. From the Historical Society of the Tonawandas. The red brick building at 583 Division Street was built for music. <div class="img-caption-container"><img src="http://nthistory.com/files/square_thumbnails/7737a2457cebcbaaa529e8a7c35d86e6.jpg" alt="A colorfully painted Style D band organ" /> <div class="caption">A "Style D" band organ on display at the Herschell Carrousel Factory Museum, 2015</div> </div> Artizan Factories Inc. makes "automatic" musical instruments for carousels, fairgrounds, and parks. The men are refugees, so to speak, of the <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/collections/show/10">North Tonawanda Musical Instrument Works</a>, which was purchased by the Rand Visible Records Company in 1918 and converted to making office supplies. Artizan president Stillman C. Woodruff was the first secretary and treasurer for the <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/collections/show/24">de Kleist Musical Instrument Mfg. Co.</a> in 1903 and served in a similar capacity for the <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/collections/show/10">North Tonawanda Musical Instrument Works </a>. Vice president Frank Morganti and treasurer Christian Maerten have also made the rounds of the local organ factories, and each have 30 years of firsthand experience. Like the North Tonawanda Musical Instrument Works' original factory, the single-elevator Artizan building is designed to accomodate expansion. However, in its case, an expansion is never necessary. In spite of its talented leadership, the competition from the nationwide Wurlitzer and changing tastes in public entertainment prove too much. After years of economic hardship, the venture fails in 1929. Other concerns have owned the building through the decades. Little trace remains of the original work done here. The first floor was removed and merged with the basement, as seen in a video tour in this collection. Doug Hershberger of the Herschell Carrousel Factory Museum paid a visit in 2006, and found much the same, as he recorded in the <a href="http://www.mmdigest.com/Archives/Digests/200811/2008.11.29.06.html">Mechanical Music Digest</a> that year: <blockquote>Inspection of the interior of the factory building is an exercise in frustration to a historian. I have never seen a building so utterly devoid of clues or artifacts or interest. There was not a partition, a workbench, a sign painted on the wall, anything that gave a clue as to the original occupant of the building. I'm not sure there was even paint on the wall. Moreover, even the first floor was gone! One of the post-Artizan owners of the property needed a higher ceiling, so he removed the first floor, making the basement ceiling the underside of the second level. Mr. Wagner was generous with his time and provided some interesting background on the building. He moved his business to the site in 1986. He said the previous owner was a pallet manufacturer who had gone bankrupt. The elevator had been sold off for income. Some of the (hardwood?) flooring had been removed by someone for the construction of a summer home. There were two boilers associated with the building, but evidently not within the four-story structure. Both have been removed and one boiler room is now used as a compressor room.</blockquote> Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Artizan Factories, Inc. A-2 organ being on partially dismantled Dentzel carousel, Shelburne Museum, photo (c1950).jpg Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1950 organ https://nthistory.com/files/original/d1f4ad29addf2dcf229f8434193350c7.jpg 8e1cb974052d8a5066d5678e3e68ea77 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Artizan Factories Inc. (583 Division Street) Description An account of the resource <img class="cover" src="http://nthistory.com/custom/cover/22.jpg" alt="Artizan Factories photo, 1926" /> The only known photograph of the Artizan Factories Inc. building in its seven years of operation; published in a 1926 industrial survey. From the Historical Society of the Tonawandas. The red brick building at 583 Division Street was built for music. <div class="img-caption-container"><img src="http://nthistory.com/files/square_thumbnails/7737a2457cebcbaaa529e8a7c35d86e6.jpg" alt="A colorfully painted Style D band organ" /> <div class="caption">A "Style D" band organ on display at the Herschell Carrousel Factory Museum, 2015</div> </div> Artizan Factories Inc. makes "automatic" musical instruments for carousels, fairgrounds, and parks. The men are refugees, so to speak, of the <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/collections/show/10">North Tonawanda Musical Instrument Works</a>, which was purchased by the Rand Visible Records Company in 1918 and converted to making office supplies. Artizan president Stillman C. Woodruff was the first secretary and treasurer for the <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/collections/show/24">de Kleist Musical Instrument Mfg. Co.</a> in 1903 and served in a similar capacity for the <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/collections/show/10">North Tonawanda Musical Instrument Works </a>. Vice president Frank Morganti and treasurer Christian Maerten have also made the rounds of the local organ factories, and each have 30 years of firsthand experience. Like the North Tonawanda Musical Instrument Works' original factory, the single-elevator Artizan building is designed to accomodate expansion. However, in its case, an expansion is never necessary. In spite of its talented leadership, the competition from the nationwide Wurlitzer and changing tastes in public entertainment prove too much. After years of economic hardship, the venture fails in 1929. Other concerns have owned the building through the decades. Little trace remains of the original work done here. The first floor was removed and merged with the basement, as seen in a video tour in this collection. Doug Hershberger of the Herschell Carrousel Factory Museum paid a visit in 2006, and found much the same, as he recorded in the <a href="http://www.mmdigest.com/Archives/Digests/200811/2008.11.29.06.html">Mechanical Music Digest</a> that year: <blockquote>Inspection of the interior of the factory building is an exercise in frustration to a historian. I have never seen a building so utterly devoid of clues or artifacts or interest. There was not a partition, a workbench, a sign painted on the wall, anything that gave a clue as to the original occupant of the building. I'm not sure there was even paint on the wall. Moreover, even the first floor was gone! One of the post-Artizan owners of the property needed a higher ceiling, so he removed the first floor, making the basement ceiling the underside of the second level. Mr. Wagner was generous with his time and provided some interesting background on the building. He moved his business to the site in 1986. He said the previous owner was a pallet manufacturer who had gone bankrupt. The elevator had been sold off for income. Some of the (hardwood?) flooring had been removed by someone for the construction of a summer home. There were two boilers associated with the building, but evidently not within the four-story structure. Both have been removed and one boiler room is now used as a compressor room.</blockquote> Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Artizan Catalogue of Automatic Military Bands, cover (HST, c1925).jpg Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1925 organ https://nthistory.com/files/original/aa534bb5198a21f31609855f7af7a94b.jpg c6bbd29b0994e79b36ab883f603eac46 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Artizan Factories Inc. (583 Division Street) Description An account of the resource <img class="cover" src="http://nthistory.com/custom/cover/22.jpg" alt="Artizan Factories photo, 1926" /> The only known photograph of the Artizan Factories Inc. building in its seven years of operation; published in a 1926 industrial survey. From the Historical Society of the Tonawandas. The red brick building at 583 Division Street was built for music. <div class="img-caption-container"><img src="http://nthistory.com/files/square_thumbnails/7737a2457cebcbaaa529e8a7c35d86e6.jpg" alt="A colorfully painted Style D band organ" /> <div class="caption">A "Style D" band organ on display at the Herschell Carrousel Factory Museum, 2015</div> </div> Artizan Factories Inc. makes "automatic" musical instruments for carousels, fairgrounds, and parks. The men are refugees, so to speak, of the <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/collections/show/10">North Tonawanda Musical Instrument Works</a>, which was purchased by the Rand Visible Records Company in 1918 and converted to making office supplies. Artizan president Stillman C. Woodruff was the first secretary and treasurer for the <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/collections/show/24">de Kleist Musical Instrument Mfg. Co.</a> in 1903 and served in a similar capacity for the <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/collections/show/10">North Tonawanda Musical Instrument Works </a>. Vice president Frank Morganti and treasurer Christian Maerten have also made the rounds of the local organ factories, and each have 30 years of firsthand experience. Like the North Tonawanda Musical Instrument Works' original factory, the single-elevator Artizan building is designed to accomodate expansion. However, in its case, an expansion is never necessary. In spite of its talented leadership, the competition from the nationwide Wurlitzer and changing tastes in public entertainment prove too much. After years of economic hardship, the venture fails in 1929. Other concerns have owned the building through the decades. Little trace remains of the original work done here. The first floor was removed and merged with the basement, as seen in a video tour in this collection. Doug Hershberger of the Herschell Carrousel Factory Museum paid a visit in 2006, and found much the same, as he recorded in the <a href="http://www.mmdigest.com/Archives/Digests/200811/2008.11.29.06.html">Mechanical Music Digest</a> that year: <blockquote>Inspection of the interior of the factory building is an exercise in frustration to a historian. I have never seen a building so utterly devoid of clues or artifacts or interest. There was not a partition, a workbench, a sign painted on the wall, anything that gave a clue as to the original occupant of the building. I'm not sure there was even paint on the wall. Moreover, even the first floor was gone! One of the post-Artizan owners of the property needed a higher ceiling, so he removed the first floor, making the basement ceiling the underside of the second level. Mr. Wagner was generous with his time and provided some interesting background on the building. He moved his business to the site in 1986. He said the previous owner was a pallet manufacturer who had gone bankrupt. The elevator had been sold off for income. Some of the (hardwood?) flooring had been removed by someone for the construction of a summer home. There were two boilers associated with the building, but evidently not within the four-story structure. Both have been removed and one boiler room is now used as a compressor room.</blockquote> Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Artizan band organ, back (c1927).jpg Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1927 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived <a href="http://www.timtrager.com">timtrager.com</a> organ https://nthistory.com/files/original/d0997e39821b4ad584f654e860f86ea3.jpg 1dc65cd135a71cbe5412af4ecd421eb9 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Artizan Factories Inc. (583 Division Street) Description An account of the resource <img class="cover" src="http://nthistory.com/custom/cover/22.jpg" alt="Artizan Factories photo, 1926" /> The only known photograph of the Artizan Factories Inc. building in its seven years of operation; published in a 1926 industrial survey. From the Historical Society of the Tonawandas. The red brick building at 583 Division Street was built for music. <div class="img-caption-container"><img src="http://nthistory.com/files/square_thumbnails/7737a2457cebcbaaa529e8a7c35d86e6.jpg" alt="A colorfully painted Style D band organ" /> <div class="caption">A "Style D" band organ on display at the Herschell Carrousel Factory Museum, 2015</div> </div> Artizan Factories Inc. makes "automatic" musical instruments for carousels, fairgrounds, and parks. The men are refugees, so to speak, of the <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/collections/show/10">North Tonawanda Musical Instrument Works</a>, which was purchased by the Rand Visible Records Company in 1918 and converted to making office supplies. Artizan president Stillman C. Woodruff was the first secretary and treasurer for the <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/collections/show/24">de Kleist Musical Instrument Mfg. Co.</a> in 1903 and served in a similar capacity for the <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/collections/show/10">North Tonawanda Musical Instrument Works </a>. Vice president Frank Morganti and treasurer Christian Maerten have also made the rounds of the local organ factories, and each have 30 years of firsthand experience. Like the North Tonawanda Musical Instrument Works' original factory, the single-elevator Artizan building is designed to accomodate expansion. However, in its case, an expansion is never necessary. In spite of its talented leadership, the competition from the nationwide Wurlitzer and changing tastes in public entertainment prove too much. After years of economic hardship, the venture fails in 1929. Other concerns have owned the building through the decades. Little trace remains of the original work done here. The first floor was removed and merged with the basement, as seen in a video tour in this collection. Doug Hershberger of the Herschell Carrousel Factory Museum paid a visit in 2006, and found much the same, as he recorded in the <a href="http://www.mmdigest.com/Archives/Digests/200811/2008.11.29.06.html">Mechanical Music Digest</a> that year: <blockquote>Inspection of the interior of the factory building is an exercise in frustration to a historian. I have never seen a building so utterly devoid of clues or artifacts or interest. There was not a partition, a workbench, a sign painted on the wall, anything that gave a clue as to the original occupant of the building. I'm not sure there was even paint on the wall. Moreover, even the first floor was gone! One of the post-Artizan owners of the property needed a higher ceiling, so he removed the first floor, making the basement ceiling the underside of the second level. Mr. Wagner was generous with his time and provided some interesting background on the building. He moved his business to the site in 1986. He said the previous owner was a pallet manufacturer who had gone bankrupt. The elevator had been sold off for income. Some of the (hardwood?) flooring had been removed by someone for the construction of a summer home. There were two boilers associated with the building, but evidently not within the four-story structure. Both have been removed and one boiler room is now used as a compressor room.</blockquote> Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Artizan Factories and North Tonawanda Musical Instrument Works music roll by Wurlitzer (c1935).jpg Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1935 organ https://nthistory.com/files/original/c5938fb9679be4409deeafcc55e05c20.jpg d956f42eabb73cc1ad81429074e954dc https://nthistory.com/files/original/e94f77964e3e9671421e519d3db4c0f9.jpg ff0c3fc0378bd45b79619b6ef7e61f6a https://nthistory.com/files/original/0907ee0ec492789d4f4e5af52836768c.jpg 5dbd8dcc999945eefd2377950ac557c3 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Artizan Factories Inc. (583 Division Street) Description An account of the resource <img class="cover" src="http://nthistory.com/custom/cover/22.jpg" alt="Artizan Factories photo, 1926" /> The only known photograph of the Artizan Factories Inc. building in its seven years of operation; published in a 1926 industrial survey. From the Historical Society of the Tonawandas. The red brick building at 583 Division Street was built for music. <div class="img-caption-container"><img src="http://nthistory.com/files/square_thumbnails/7737a2457cebcbaaa529e8a7c35d86e6.jpg" alt="A colorfully painted Style D band organ" /> <div class="caption">A "Style D" band organ on display at the Herschell Carrousel Factory Museum, 2015</div> </div> Artizan Factories Inc. makes "automatic" musical instruments for carousels, fairgrounds, and parks. The men are refugees, so to speak, of the <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/collections/show/10">North Tonawanda Musical Instrument Works</a>, which was purchased by the Rand Visible Records Company in 1918 and converted to making office supplies. Artizan president Stillman C. Woodruff was the first secretary and treasurer for the <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/collections/show/24">de Kleist Musical Instrument Mfg. Co.</a> in 1903 and served in a similar capacity for the <a href="http://www.nthistory.com/collections/show/10">North Tonawanda Musical Instrument Works </a>. Vice president Frank Morganti and treasurer Christian Maerten have also made the rounds of the local organ factories, and each have 30 years of firsthand experience. Like the North Tonawanda Musical Instrument Works' original factory, the single-elevator Artizan building is designed to accomodate expansion. However, in its case, an expansion is never necessary. In spite of its talented leadership, the competition from the nationwide Wurlitzer and changing tastes in public entertainment prove too much. After years of economic hardship, the venture fails in 1929. Other concerns have owned the building through the decades. Little trace remains of the original work done here. The first floor was removed and merged with the basement, as seen in a video tour in this collection. Doug Hershberger of the Herschell Carrousel Factory Museum paid a visit in 2006, and found much the same, as he recorded in the <a href="http://www.mmdigest.com/Archives/Digests/200811/2008.11.29.06.html">Mechanical Music Digest</a> that year: <blockquote>Inspection of the interior of the factory building is an exercise in frustration to a historian. I have never seen a building so utterly devoid of clues or artifacts or interest. There was not a partition, a workbench, a sign painted on the wall, anything that gave a clue as to the original occupant of the building. I'm not sure there was even paint on the wall. Moreover, even the first floor was gone! One of the post-Artizan owners of the property needed a higher ceiling, so he removed the first floor, making the basement ceiling the underside of the second level. Mr. Wagner was generous with his time and provided some interesting background on the building. He moved his business to the site in 1986. He said the previous owner was a pallet manufacturer who had gone bankrupt. The elevator had been sold off for income. Some of the (hardwood?) flooring had been removed by someone for the construction of a summer home. There were two boilers associated with the building, but evidently not within the four-story structure. Both have been removed and one boiler room is now used as a compressor room.</blockquote> Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Artizan Air-Calio Calliope, photos (c1927).jpg Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1927 organ