Fort Wayne, IN: Packard/Fort Wayne Piano/Organ Company

(Satellite)

Donald Brockhaus posted four images with the comment:

The Fort Wayne Organ Company was incorporated in November of 1871 by Isaac T. Packard and a group of stockholders. Ground was broken on Fairfield Avenue for this Fort Wayne factory in December, 1871. In April of 1872, the company produced their first reed organ. The company produced its first piano in 1893 and by 1900, the company’s emphasis shifted from organ production to piano production. At full production Packard would produce between three and four thousand pianos a year. It took approximately nine months to make a piano, starting from the time lumber was stored to dry. After 59 years of operation, the company went into receivership on Feb. 6, 1930, one of many victims of the great depression. Circa 1935 - The city of Fort Wayne acquired the former Packard Company property. The buildings were torn down and the land turned into a city park, now known as Packard Park. ~photo taken in 1914

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Kenneth Childers commented on Donald's posting
'The Packard Company' [in 'Fort Wayne Indiana,' Fort Wayne News 1913, reprint] A photo

Some of the comments on Donald's posting include photos of instruments they still own.

When Packard's Chicago organ factory burned in the Great Fire of 1871, he moved he rebuilt in Fort Wayne. [FortWayneReader]

A history and some product pictures of the organs: 1872-1889, 1890-1897, and 1898-1914 as tabs on the value page.