1879

  • Starting this year, Steinway & Sons’ piano case manufacturing moves to Astoria. The four-story casemaking plant contains almost 60,000 square feet of space. Next to the casemaking plant, there’s a powerhouse, with four steam engines generating 3,000 horsepowers; and next to the powerhouse there’s another four-story building of 16,000 square feet, containing drying rooms and kilns for lumber. Heated by steam, coursing through 60,000 feet of pipe, half a million square feet of wood dries there, staying in the drying rooms for about three months.
  • The Steinways install telephone on their factory and at home.