![]() Status, a love of music and an interest in arts and culture drove people to buy what was then-and still is-an expensive piece of furniture. The instrument was extremely popular during this era among the middle-class in the U.S. With some research, I discovered the world’s leading piano manufacturing center in the late 19th and early 20th centuries was Chicago. So did that concentration of piano companies on Wabash Avenue. But one company making 50,000 pianos? That really surprised me. I knew that parlor pianos were favorite instruments in the Victorian and Edwardian eras. I wondered, “What was it with Chicago and pianos?” Then I remembered the Wabash Avenue photo. In that building, Bush and Gerts Piano Company (the owner of the building) produced 50,000 pianos in its first 25 years. Today, the Bush Temple of Music is a Chicago landmark and included on the National Register of Historic Places. While doing research for the CAC’s Near North Pub Tour, I learned about a building at the corner of Clark Street and Chicago Avenue called the Bush Temple of Music. ![]() This short section of Wabash was full of piano companies: Baldwin & Co., Wurlitzer, Cable Piano, Mason and Hamlin.īy Ed McDevitt, CAC docent, class of 2010 A few years ago, I saw an old photograph of the L junction at Van Buren and Wabash.
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