Wednesday, December 7, 2022

Piano Factory, Fort Lee - found!

It was disappointing to read in a book on Fort Lee that the Abbott & Sons Piano Factory had been razed. Matt and I discovered its historic location on our visit to Fort Lee; a bank building is presently on the site of the original factory building. The Port Authority is on the spot where the later brick factory stood. We found photos of both piano factory buildings in some of the materials we discovered.

A photo of the original Abbott & Sons Piano Factory
from a book on Fort Lee that we found in the
Ridgewood Public Library.

Abbott & Sons Piano Factory, the later brick building 
that was next to the original wood sided building.

Then we learned that the original building had been MOVED to Main Street! Using Google Maps and Google Earth along with clues from our new sources, I began a mission to find it. I traveled virtually up and down Main Street. At first, I was looking for the newer brick building, not imagining that the original white sided building would be the one that was saved. Then I spotted it. It was unmistakable. There was the familiar roof peeking above the facade of a Chinese restaurant at 214 Main Street. 

The familiar roof line of the original piano factory
building peeking over the restaurant.

From behind the restaurant on the corner of Main Street and Gerome Avenue

The current name of the business



The view from Google Earth



Aerial photo from the book, Fort Lee, by Lucille Bertram.
You can see the original piano factory building on the corner at Lemoine Avenue.
The brick factory building is at the center of the photo.

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