Charles Frederick Stein pianos

[Tom Cole]

Thanks, Paul, for your comments. I've forwarded them to the niece of C.
F. Stein.

Tom Cole

Yardarm103669107@AOL.COM wrote:
> 
> In a message dated 3/25/2001 1:42:19 PM Central Standard Time,
> tcole@cruzio.com writes:
> 
> <<
>  A woman, whose father worked for his brother C. F. Stein, has asked me
>  if I know anything about the Stein pianos. She had a few remembrances of
>  what her father had told her, about the German craftsmen that were
>  brought over, and the unique soundboards, but wondered what had
>  ultimately happened to her Uncle Charlie's piano factory since there are
>  conflicting stories in the family (including the notion that it became
>  Steinway Pianos!).
> 
>  I couldn't find anything in my library that could help her. Anyone? >>
> 
> Tom:
> Jack Greenfield and I spent an afternoon about 10 years ago visiting 5-6
> sites of previous piano factories here in Chicago, mostly centered around the
> location of my shop on Carroll St. just north of Fulton. The Stein Factory,
> which was exactly 10 blocks west of my shop at 3047 W. Carroll, no longer
> exists at all; the building is gone, and the lot is (was) vacant and not a
> terribly good neighborhood. I kicked at the dirt around the fences that were
> there to see whether any long lost fragments of whippens or hammer butts or
> tuning pins or (lo and behold) an entire harmonic soundboard with the raised
> box on the bridge. But there was nothing. At one time, around my shop in
> several directions were about 12 manufacturers, most of them no longer even
> recognized. All of them went belly up in the 30's except for Stein who
> persisted until the early 40's. I've rebuilt several of the them, and they
> are truly fun to work on. Stein paid a lot of attention to scale design, and
> experimented, as everyone knows, with soundboard design. Even the underside
> of the piano is pretty with beautiful trapwork. The bearing and
> counterbearing bars on the plate are rosewood. Lots of the thought here. It's
> empty around this part of town now; there must have been piano-maker bars
> where the craftspeople went to drink.
> 
> Jack might know more than that.
> 
> PR-J