ABSTRACT
William Steinway (1835–1896) was the fourth son and sixth child of Henry Engelhardt (sometimes spelled “Engelhard”; 1797–1871) and Julianna Thiemer (1804–1877) Steinway (originally Steinweg). When William was fifteen years old, the Steinways left their ancestral home in Seesen, Germany (in the Harz Mountains of the Duchy of Braunschweig), and settled in New York. The Steinway men, including William, found positions in various New York piano-manufacturing firms. In 1853, when William was age eighteen, Henry Sr. and his two sons, Charles (1829–1865) and Henry Jr. (1830–1865), 1 formed Steinway & Sons as a partnership and began to manufacture pianos. Success soon followed, with a gold medal at an American Mechanics Fair in New York in 1855, several patents, and—as production and sales expanded—the need for manufacturing space greater than the lofts and small buildings in downtown New York that the company had occupied since 1853. In 1860, Steinway & Sons built a large factory on Fourth Avenue (now Park Avenue) between 52nd and 53rd Streets. Both the size of the building and its location in what was then the outskirts of the city testified to a forward look and very high ambition. Henry Jr. handled design and construction and took out Steinway’s first seven patents, and Charles was in charge of the factory.
