In digest 971106 Damon Atchison wrote:

> Are they still there?
> What is in the factory now?
> What condition is the factory in?
> Does Reblitz own the old factory?

The east Rochester factory is still in nice shape. We visited it last year.
The main part of the building is redone, and very nice. This building has
been made into a mall named "the piano works" there are three smaller
buildings that still look old and I looked in the windows. Nothing there
related to pianos anymore. The Ampico smoke stack still stands proud and
high, like the pianos it represents. The railroad still runs in back of
the property. We got there late and just stayed out back in the motor home.

The next morning, we visited the mall. Upon the walls were old large photos
of the factory, showing that there were more buildings that must have been
torn down though the years. I read in the AMICA where a fellow came along
in the '50.s and bought the remaining perforators for scrap price!  I also
was told by an old fellow in Rochester that pianos were built there untll
1980 (he thought) and everything auctioned off. I would imagine that photo
in the Reblitz book was taken around the mid 1970's.

I also discovered that the Foster & Co pianos were built there from 1886
to 1929, put together in the building that is directly behind Wendys
restaurant. When American Piano co and Aeolian merged, The Foster Brewster,
and Armstrong brands were dropped. (They were almost exactly alike in
scale.) The higher grade of pianos, Marshall & Wendell, Knabe etc.
that were made in New York City, and Albany, Were then built in east
Rochester until the end. I doubt if Reblitz owns that factory.  He has
a full time rebuilding business in Colorado Springs.  Later, next year,
I intend to see if the Jesse French piano co building in Newcastle
Indiana.  and the Starr piano co in Remington Indiana still stands.

                                                        Andy Taylor
                                                        Tempola music rolls