Nordheimer Piano Factory Junction
From a family of Jewish Bavarian merchants, Samuel Nordheimer immigrated to Toronto from Bavaria in 1844. With his brother, Abraham, they imported pianos and by 1890 opened a factory in the Junction, to become one of Canada's best known domestic piano brands. In the 1920s, when many Canadian piano manufacturers were struggling, Heintzman & Co. Also took over the Nordheimer Piano Co, and in later years produced pianos under the Nordheimer name. Heintzman & Co. Also produced foot-pumped player pianos although a number of electric pianos have been found to use the Welte reproducing system as well as.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Theodor August Heintzman (birth name TheodoreAugust Heintzmann) (19 May 1817 – 25 July 1899) was a German-bornCanadian pianomanufacturer (Heintzman & Co.) and inventor,best known for founding the piano company which still bears hisname.
Born in Berlin, Heintzman worked in various manufacturing jobsas a youth, eventually settling in at a German piano factory. In 1840, he marriedhis boss' daughter and, following the lead of her family,immigrated to the United States in 1850.
It is believed by the Heintzman family that Theodor immigratedon the same boat as HeinrichEngelhard Steinweg, another piano-maker, and the two attemptedto start a business in New York City. They soon parted ways,however, with Heintzman taking his family to Buffalowhere he started again; Steinweg eventually changed his name to Steinwayand became a successful piano manufacturer in his own right. InBuffalo, Heintzman started the 'Western Piano Co.', which he ranuntil it went under in 1858.
In 1860, Heintzman moved to Toronto, where he constructed hisfirst four pianos in the kitchen of his son-in-law; these soldwell, and with the proceeds he was able to found Heintzman& Co., Ltd., setting up his primary warehouse first onToronto's York Street, soon moving to KingStreet near Yonge.
Heintzman enjoyed a reputation as a grand showman, oftenperforming on his pianos as part of his sales pitch. Of note isthat Heintzman took several of his pianos with him on the first trans-Canadian rail trip,which he used both as a means for sale and advertising. His son George is said to haveridden on the cowcatcher as the train pulled intoVancouver, passing out handbills.
Heintzman pianos soon grew steadily in reputation, and as aresult, Heintzman became a very wealthy man. He and his four adultsons (all of whom were in the family business) settled into West Toronto Junctionwhich was, at the time, a separate town from Toronto. Heintzman'sestate, built in 1889, was called 'The Birches', and despite someinternal modifications, it still stands on Annette Street, acrossthe street from Annette Street Public School. A property developer's plan to tear it downin the early 1980s sparked a protest from local citizens, and a compromisewas reached wherein the exterior has been restored in the originalQueen Anne Revival style.Two of his sons' homes in the area are also still standing: HermanHeintzman's home on High Park Avenue and George Heinztman's houseon Woodside Avenue. A larger estate of George's in Thornhill,Ontario is also still standing.
The Junction was also home to the primary Heintzman factoryprior to the moving of operations to Hanover (today, most Heintzman pianosare made in China). Heintzman Street, a short, dead-end road whichruns just north of Dundas Street, formerly led tothe Junction factory, which in its heyday employed over 200craftsmen, making it one of the largest Canadian factories of anykind for its time. A nearby Lutheran Church,which Heintzman and his family attended, bears a plaque memorializing Heintzman'scontributions to both the Junction and the piano industry.
He died in 1899, shortly after the death of his wife.
References
- Biography at theDictionary of Canadian Biography Online
- Structures, television show. Rogers Television. 2006,Episode 3: 'Theodore Heintzman.' Rogers Television
- Jones, Donald. 'Heintzman's old house enduring as his pianos,'TorontoStar, 1976-04-10.
Heintzman & Co. is a celebrated Canadian piano manufacturer, formerly based in the Toronto area, whose instruments retain a reputation for quality of workmanship and fineness of tone.
History[edit]
The firm was incorporated in 1866 in Toronto, Ontario by Theodor August Heintzman, who was born in Berlin, May 19, 1817, and who emigrated to Canada in 1860, following a brief residence in New York City. The story that Heintzman worked in the same Berlin piano factory as (and emigrated from Germany with) Henry E. Steinway, who went on to found Steinway & Sons, is unconfirmed, but is typical of comparisons that were often later made between the instruments that their two firms produced.
Following his arrival in Toronto, Heintzman began to produce pianos from his residence (he is said to have worked initially from his kitchen) and then went on to open his first factory at 23 Duke Street. By May 1868 Heintzman had relocated operations to 105 King St W and was soon turning out more than 60 pianos a year. By 1873 the company had moved to 115-17 King St W where there was space for a factory, offices, and sales rooms. The company was operated by Theodore Heintzman until his death in 1899, when his sons took over operation of the company.
The organisation continued to grow throughout the 1870s, and by 1879 had turned out its thousandth instrument. By 1884 the number of pianos completed reached nearly 2000, and a new factory was built in the West Toronto suburb of Toronto. (Heintzman Street marks the location of the factory today.) All production was moved to the new factory in 1888 and output began to climb steeply.
Piano Factory Astoria
Theodore Heintzman's nephew, Gerhard Heintzman, was also a piano maker, and when Gerhard died in 1926, Heintzman & Co. continued to operate Gerhard company for several years. In later years they also produced pianos under the Gerhard Heintzman brand. In the 1920s, when many Canadian piano manufacturers were struggling, Heintzman & Co. also took over the Nordheimer Piano Company, and in later years produced pianos under the Nordheimer name. Heintzman & Co. also produced foot-pumped player pianos although a number of electric pianos have been found to use the Welte reproducing system as well as two surviving examples of an ArtEcho reproducing system. Over the years, Heintzman produced pianos were sold under several brands names, and Heintzman also sold pianos produced for them by other piano manufacturers. Heintzman's top pianos were produced under the 'Heintzman & Company' brand, with the 'Gerhard Heintzman' brand being next, then the 'Nordheimer' brand (acquired from Samuel Nordheimer in 1928). Brands that were produced for them, and sold with a 'From Heintzman & Company' decal were Gerhard, Weber, Stevenson.[1]
Unlike some piano manufacturers of the time, Heintzman always aimed to produce high-quality, rather than affordable instruments, and it was on the basis of this reputation that the firm carried its success into the twentieth century. Heintzman suffered considerably during the Great Depression of the 1930s, but continued to manufacture pianos in the decades that followed, reaching production of 5000 instruments in 1967.
Heintzman had opened an additional factory in Hanover, Ontario in 1962, and following a merger in 1978 with the Sherlock-Manning Piano Co, relocated their head offices there as Heintzman Ltd. The new company continued to produce pianos under both names, with the Heintzman grand piano the top line.
In January 1981, Heintzman Ltd was sold by the family to Sklar-Peppler Inc. of Hanover, Ontario, and was operated by Sklar-Peppler as a subsidiary under the Heintzman Ltd. name. It redesigned, rescaled and re-engineered both upright and grand pianos, and by 1985, 750 uprights and 40-50 grands were produced annually. People say that pianos of this era are popularly considered to be of substantially lower quality than earlier instruments, though still good compared to pianos manufactured around the world today, even in Germany. They made good furniture pieces and were hand made out of Canadian wood by the same people in Heintzman.
In 1986 The Music Stand, an Oakville-based franchise music retail chain, purchased the Heintzman Ltd. patents and trademarks from Sklar-Peppler, as well as the remaining inventory, which it marketed. In 1990, a Federal Court judge ruled that The Music Stand could not place the Heintzman nameplate on pianos built in South Korea and the US, which it imported for sale in Canada.
Today[edit]
The current 'Heintzman Piano Company' was established in August 1989 as a joint venture between the Beijing HsingHai Piano Group and Canadian shareholders. This company bought the manufacturing equipment and scale designs from the Canadian factory, which are still used in current-production pianos. James Moffat, the Canadian plant manager, was retained as a consultant and continues to visit the Chinese factory several times each year. In 1995, when the Chinese government began allowing foreign control of manufacturing companies, the Canadian shareholders bought out controlling shares in the company. Heintzman grands use soundboards from Canadian manufacturer Andre Bolduc.[2]
Characteristics[edit]
According to one piano technician, Heintzman & Co. 'produced uncompromised quality grand and upright pianos through the early decades of the twentieth century. Unfortunately, the market for large uprights declined through the 1930s. Heintzman followed the trend toward smaller cheaper uprights and although they produced better than average uprights, they couldn't match the sound and quality of the earlier full sized upright pianos that they had once produced.'[1]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ ab'Heintzman & Company'. Retrieved January 17, 2008.
- ^'Heintzman Piano Company Profile'. Archived from the original on December 17, 2007. Retrieved January 17, 2008.
External links[edit]
- Canadian Piano Manufacturers G-M[permanent dead link]
