Image: Estey Piano Company Building, Bronx, NY

Description: Estey Piano Company Building, Bruckner Blvd. From the landmark report: The Estey Factory's ornament includes terra cotta tiles with foliate motifs on its roof parapets, and with alternating festoon and lions'-head motifs on the clock tower and on the projecting, easternmost portion of the south façade that was constructed as part of the 1890 addition. Terra cotta was an attractive material for the factory owner because of its inherent fire-resistance, but it also mimicked carved stone at a price that, in 1887, was about 35% cheaper; the use of terra cotta as a less-expensive substitute for decorative stone was widespread during the 1880s and 1890s.According to the historic preservationist Laura Buchner, the terra cotta tiles on the Estey Factory's parapets appeared in an 1885 catalog of the Perth Amboy Terra Cotta Company, and they must have continued to be available five years later, as the terra cotta of the 1890 addition matches that of the original Estey Factory. Terra cotta's primary function, of course, was ornamental, and at the Estey Factory, it worked together with the building's other decorative features, regular fenestration pattern, and long, molded, and monumental brick facades to project a strong, solid, and attractive image for its company. This was important in an era in which a factory often served as an advertisement for its firm; companies typically produced bird's-eye renderings of their industrial complexes that appeared in their catalogs, in business directories, in advertisements, and on company letterhead.131 Generally, these depicted the factory as a hub of activity with smoke pouring from its chimneys, the home of a successful business that, by implication, made a desirable and dependable product. The Estey Organ Company often included an image of its Brattleboro works in its promotional materials, and when the Estey Piano Company formed, it started doing the same. One early Estey Piano trade card shows one of the company's instruments in a parlor, with the pre-1890 Estey Piano Factory—an American flag flying from atop its clock tower—visible through an open window. Another early trade card shows a well-dressed woman admiring a portrait of the building that hangs over the Estey piano in her parlor, and a later trade card with a whimsical illustration of four young girls has, on its reverse side, a drawing of the Estey Factory showing the building as it appeared between the completion of its 1890 Southern Boulevard addition, and its 1895 Lincoln Avenue additions.
Title: Estey Piano Company Building, Bronx, NY
Credit: Estey Piano Company Building Uploaded by clusternote
Author: Emilio Guerra from Queens, United States
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License: CC BY 2.0
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