Sohmer and Company Piano Factory

The Sohmer and Company Piano Factory was built in 1886 as a deliberate statement of the company's rising status. Its location right on the East River waterfront was chosen to provide easy access to shipping routes for finished instruments and to ensure the factory was visible to people traveling by boat. The architects designed the building in the German Romanesque Revival style, which was popular for factories at the time because it blended decorative arched windows with a heavy, industrial structure. Most impressively, the factory's primary role was to serve as a marketing tool. The company featured illustrations of the building on its letterheads, catalogs, and advertisements, often adding smoke to the chimneys to convey an image of a busy and thriving enterprise to potential customers.