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Wurlitzer Tonophone

North Tonawanda Barrel Organ Factory
Wurlitzer Factory Tower 1.JPG
Front tower, 2012
Alternative names The Wurlitzer Building
General information
Town or city North Tonawanda, New York
Country United States
Coordinates 43°3′40″N 78°50′35″W / 43.06111°N 78.84306°W / 43.06111; -78.84306
Current tenants Multiple
Completed Original portion 1893, added to until the 1950s
Technical details
Structural system Reinforced concrete
Floor area 750,000 square feet (70,000 m2)
Website
thewurlitzerbuilding.com
References

The North Tonawanda Barrel Organ Factory was a street organ manufacturing company and building, located in North Tonawanda, New York. Started by expatriate German Eugene de Kleist with backing from Allan Herschell, the company was later purchased by the Wurlitzer company.

In 1892, the United States Government imposed high import tariffs on both street and fairground organ importation. At this time only the French company of Gavioli had an office established in North America, but the move deterred other European organ manufacturers from doing the same. The result was that embryonic American fairground ride manufacturers were now starved of the highly quality instruments to attract fair goers, resulting in lower sales.

In 1883, William Herschell, son of carousel builder Allan Herschell, traveled to London, England to meet former Limonaire Frères employee Eugene de Kleist. Backed by Herschell, in 1893 de Kleist set up band organ production in what was then part of Martinsville, New York (soon to be incorporated as North Tonawanda, New York), founding the North Tonawanda Barrel Organ Factory. As parts were not subject to the import tariffs, many of the companies early organs had Limonaire components. The company produced a range of barrel organ based products, suited for all ranges of fairground attraction.

As production grew, de Kleist approached other musical instrument manufacturers to create new instruments under their brands. One of these companies was the Wurlitzer company of Cincinnati, Ohio. Wurlitzer said no to buying any of De Kleist's existing barrel-organ based products, but said that they would buy a coin-operated piano. As development progressed, in 1903 the business was incorporated as the DeKleist Musical Instrument Manufacturing Company.


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