American Made Pianos

An Outstanding Manufacturing Tradition

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Wurlitzer & Company

Factory Location: Chicago, Illinois
Serial Number Dates: 1903 - Pesent

History:

The Wurlitzer name is one of the most well known piano and organ names in the world. The company was established around 1900 and has made pianos and organs (and more recently, electronic keyboards) for over a century. Other names associated with Wurlitzer include Apollo, Julius Bauer & Company, Melville Clark, De Kalb, Farney, Kingston, Student Butterfly, Clavichord, Kurtzmann, Merriam, Schaff Brothers, and Underwood.

 

Information source: Pierce Piano Atlas

The Resonance of a Continent: The American Piano Tradition

The American piano manufacturing tradition is a story of unparalleled craftsmanship meeting the boundless natural resources of a new world. At its heart lies the selection of materials—most notably the vast, old-growth spruce forests of the Pacific Northwest and the Northeast. These superior stands of Sitka and Adirondack spruce provided the tight-grained, resonant timber essential for crafting the world’s finest soundboards, offering a tonal depth and "singing" quality that European makers envied. Combined with a relentless spirit of industrial innovation, American makers refined the overstrung scale and the heavy cast-iron plate, creating instruments of such structural integrity and powerful projection that they redefined the modern piano.