VERNON Boulevard’s most venerable structure may be the former Sohmer Piano factory, 11-31 Vernon at 31st Avenue. I first encountered the building several years ago when it was still occupied by the Adirondack Chair Company and spoke with John Pupa, Vice President of Operations for Adirondack. He said that Adirondack no longer heated the building with coal but it still maintained its old Hewes and Phillips coal-burning oven, which he showed me and GAHS Director Bob Singleton, and took coal deliveries. From one of the upstairs rooms, now converted to a condo apartment, we had a good view of the river, Roosevelt Island and its lighthouse.
It’s not the only piano factory converted to luxury in NYC of late — I was taken by surprise to discover that the fortress-like, hulking Steinway factory on Ditmars Boulevard and 45th Street in Astoria became the Pistilli Grand Manor, and the clock-towered Estey Piano building and its distinctive clock tower in the Bronx’ Mott Haven became residential in the early 2000s. Sohmer pianos? They are now manufactured in Korea.
A pair of chiseled signs at Vernon Boulevard and 31st Avenue proclaim the former names “Boulevard” and “Jamaica (Avenue).” However I do not have maps with these former names. In 1886, when the factory was constructed, those were no doubt briefly the names; Jamaica Avenue later became Patterson Avenue and then 31st.
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10/1/24