ESTEY PIANOS, Mott Haven

by Kevin Walsh

The Estey Piano & Organ Company was one of the most important players in the late 19th and early 20th Century piano & organ manufacturing business. Established in 1846, Estey was one of the few American manufacturers to survive over a century. For decades, Estey manufactured several lines of upright pianos, player pianos and grand pianos. Estey instruments are known far and wide as being exceptionally well made, durable instrument, and they are well worth restoration and preservation today. Production under the Estey name was discontinued sometime in the 1970s.  Antique Piano Shop

Estey, centered in Bluffton, Indiana, since 1869, built this clock-tower factory at Lincoln Avenue and Bruckner Blvd. (then East 133rd Street) in 1888. 

4/11/13

5 comments

Edward April 12, 2013 - 1:00 pm

It’s amazing what a manufacturing powerhouse New York became after the Erie Canal opened in 1825. What is even more amazing is that virtually none of it has survived into the 21st Century.

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Tal Barzilai April 12, 2013 - 5:05 pm

I see this every time I go to the Third Avenue Bridge after exiting from the southbound side of the Major Deegan Expressway.

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Flatlandia April 13, 2013 - 8:43 am

We had an Estey, 72 chord electric stainless steel reed (whoo hoo!) air pump organ which our parents bought for my sister & I back in 1966. We had a lot of fun with it, with its play-by-number songbooks. Our canary used to burst into a warble whenever my mom sat down to play (usually when taking a dusting break).

Around 9 years later, I turned it on & discovered one of the chord buttons was stuck, making a continuous sound.

Mr. Know-It-All Fixit Man that I was, I proceeded to unscrew & lift off the chord button panel.

All the metal rods attached to the buttons promptly fell together in a tangled heap. Mg father nearly went berserk when he found out.

He called the Estey guy, who actually made a house call (!) but the prognosis was not good, & out it went on the curb, convinced I was sure to follow.

Two years later, I bought my first Moog synthesizer – analog, of course. It was great, but I’ll always have fond memories of that Estey.

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Brian September 26, 2013 - 11:03 am

Of course, the original home of Estey organs was in Brattleboro, VT. Now there’s a nascent Estey Organ Museum in Brattleboro, apparently in one of the original Estey buildings. There’s a “preview gallery” but the full museum is only in the planning and fundraising stages.

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jack daniel laird August 7, 2019 - 5:58 pm

In 2017 I lost the LOVE of my life I meet Jenny and I know it on the spot I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her. So I asked her to marry me a week later! She said yes, and for 29 years I was in LOVE every day. Well being by my self has not been good . So for my 63 birthday I bought a baby grand Estey piano now I am learning to play so many songs that I am learning to play and sing to her. What a wonderful time I am having we have 3 children 1 boy and twin girls they are grown now! when I play it brings tears to all of us not sure if its my terrible voice or the beautiful sounds .THANK YOU ESTEY

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