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104-502: Headquartered in Chicago, Illinois , the company proclaimed itself "the world's greatest manufacturer of pianos, inner player pianos , and organs ". It was indubitably one of the largest, and maintained that status for several decades during the apogee of U.S. piano sales, the so-called Golden Age of the Piano . Trade publications of the day called it "the largest reed organ house in the world, and

208-403: A Democrat, was elected in 1955, in the era of machine politics . In 1956, the city conducted its last major expansion when it annexed the land under O'Hare airport, including a small portion of DuPage County. By the 1960s, white residents in several neighborhoods left the city for the suburban areas – in many American cities, a process known as white flight – as Blacks continued to move beyond

312-589: A distributor in Binghamton, New York . "There is no better indication of the prosperous times in our country than by the extensive sale of Pianos and Organs," the Tribune wrote. "This is said to be the largest single shipment of Pianos and Organs ever made at one time and shows the rapid strides Chicago is making in the Music Industry." In 1899, Herman Cable died, and Fayette Cable took over as president. Alfred Dolge ,

416-408: A fellow piano manufacturer, described Herman Cable's approach and impact in his 1911 book Pianos and Their Makers: "Cable applied the methods used in selling books, as far as possible, to the organ and piano business, with amazing success. Like [fellow pianomaker William Wallace] Kimball , he was a born organizer and an excellent judge of men and their abilities. The training which he had enjoyed in

520-498: A fourth-floor library and repair shop. It also connected the two structures along the Cable Building's freight elevator. In 1906, the company reached the apogee of its reed-organ production capability: 24,000 per year. That year, U.S. pianomakers sold about 280,000 pianos, including about 20,000 player pianos. Sales slumped the following year, though the number of player pianos sold grew to about 22,000. In mid-1906, Klugh predicted

624-486: A heart attack soon after. Washington was succeeded by 6th ward alderperson Eugene Sawyer , who was elected by the Chicago City Council and served until a special election. Richard M. Daley , son of Richard J. Daley, was elected in 1989. His accomplishments included improvements to parks and creating incentives for sustainable development , as well as closing Meigs Field in the middle of the night and destroying

728-639: A job in New York City with the publishing house of Barnes and Co ., which in 1869 (or 1870) sent him to Chicago to manage the western department. In the fall of 1879, Cable joined (or helped found, sources differ) the Wolfinger Organ Co. Cable served as treasurer and director, along with F.R. Wolfinger, president, and John A. Comstock, secretary. Its offices and factory were in a three-story building at Randolph and Ann (today, Racine) Streets, owned by New York financier Hetty Green and familiarly known as

832-660: A model for the new field of social work . During the 1870s and 1880s, Chicago attained national stature as the leader in the movement to improve public health. City laws and later, state laws that upgraded standards for the medical profession and fought urban epidemics of cholera , smallpox , and yellow fever were both passed and enforced. These laws became templates for public health reform in other cities and states. The city established many large, well-landscaped municipal parks , which also included public sanitation facilities. The chief advocate for improving public health in Chicago

936-472: A new grade with the use of jackscrews for raising buildings. While elevating Chicago, and at first improving the city's health, the untreated sewage and industrial waste now flowed into the Chicago River , and subsequently into Lake Michigan , polluting the city's primary freshwater source. The city responded by tunneling two miles (3.2 km) out into Lake Michigan to newly built water cribs . In 1900,

1040-570: A piano store in St. Louis , where one fine day, he sold five Steinway grands and two Steinway uprights. In 1881, he sold both stores and began to design pianos in New York City. His pianos, made with several improvements that he earned patents for, were soon renowned for their fine quality and unusually good tone. But the firm struggled, and Conover was persuaded to sell the business to Cable and sign on as its director of piano manufacturing. He would remain with

1144-493: A stockholder; he would stay for 10 years before leaving to start the Straube Piano Company . On March 12, 1886, another fire broke out in the factory at Randolph and Ann, this one gutting the building and destroying more than 2,000 organs in various states of completion. "Cable estimated the damage to the stock to be $ 50,000 and to the machinery $ 25,000. The company carried $ 40,550 insurance, carried by several companies,"

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1248-407: Is known to botanists as Allium tricoccum and known more commonly as "ramps". The first known reference to the site of the current city of Chicago as " Checagou " was by Robert de LaSalle around 1679 in a memoir. Henri Joutel , in his journal of 1688, noted that the eponymous wild "garlic" grew profusely in the area. According to his diary of late September 1687: ... when we arrived at

1352-554: Is routinely ranked among the world's top six busiest airports by passenger traffic , and the region is also the nation's railroad hub. The Chicago area has one of the highest gross domestic products (GDP) of any urban region in the world, generating $ 689 billion in 2018. Chicago's economy is diverse , with no single industry employing more than 14% of the workforce. Chicago is a major destination for tourism , including visitors to its cultural institutions , and Lake Michigan beaches . Chicago's culture has contributed much to

1456-604: Is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States . With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 census , it is the third-most populous city in the United States after New York City and Los Angeles . As the seat of Cook County , the second-most populous county in the U.S., Chicago is the center of the Chicago metropolitan area , often colloquially called "Chicagoland" and home to 9.6 million residents. Located on

1560-781: The Chicago Tribune reported. Most of the company's 174 employees were kept on as the company improvised workspaces in the neighborhood. Lots were purchased on January 8, 1887, and a new plant constructed on the southwest corner of Paulina Street and 22nd Street (today's Cermak Road ). Wolfinger sold his interest in the company to G.K. Barnes, who would himself divest in 1889. Cable became president after he and Tewksbury bought Wise out. Cable also brought his brothers Fayette S. Cable (b. March 18, 1855, in Cannonsville, New York , d. February 22, 1920, in Hinsdale, Illinois ) and Hobart M. Cable into

1664-722: The Washington Herald , which gave them away as contest prizes.) It operated a "small goods" supply featuring musical instruments produced by the Gretsch and Martin companies. It dabbled in music publishing, issuing editions of "The One Hundred and One Best Songs" in 1915 and 1922, selling thousands to school districts around the country. During the Great War and into the 1920s, it also donated song sheets—with advertisements for its instruments to community-music programs at civilian-military preparedness camps. In 1922, The Purchaser's Guide to

1768-577: The American Piano Company .) The company also considered opening a new factory in or near Atlanta ; its factories were already consuming nearly all the wood veneer produced by a plant in Dublin, Georgia . A week after the Mason & Hamlin purchase was inked, the company threw a banquet for its top 60 officers and branch heads ("a superb one, complete in every essential detail from blue points to cigars",

1872-473: The Black Belt . While home loan discriminatory redlining against blacks continued, the real estate industry practiced what became known as blockbusting , completely changing the racial composition of whole neighborhoods. Structural changes in industry, such as globalization and job outsourcing, caused heavy job losses for lower-skilled workers. At its peak during the 1960s, some 250,000 workers were employed in

1976-699: The Calumet River in the industrial far South Side—flow either entirely or partially through the city. Chicago's history and economy are closely tied to its proximity to Lake Michigan. While the Chicago River historically handled much of the region's waterborne cargo, today's huge lake freighters use the city's Lake Calumet Harbor on the South Side. The lake also provides another positive effect: moderating Chicago's climate, making waterfront neighborhoods slightly warmer in winter and cooler in summer. When Chicago

2080-548: The Chicago School , the development of the City Beautiful movement , and the steel-framed skyscraper . Chicago is an international hub for finance, culture , commerce, industry, education, technology, telecommunications, and transportation . It has the largest and most diverse finance derivatives market in the world, generating 20% of all volume in commodities and financial futures alone. O'Hare International Airport

2184-472: The Fox River and the Chicago and North Western Railroad allowed it access to materials and components from around the world. "The Cable factory gave St. Charles an international flavor. Ivory for piano keys came from India and Africa. Wool for the hammers came from Australia. Rich wood veneers were imported from Mexico, South America and the gold coast of Africa. In return, Cable distributed its pianos all over

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2288-580: The Great Lakes to connect to the Mississippi River. A flourishing economy brought residents from rural communities and immigrants from abroad. Manufacturing and retail and finance sectors became dominant, influencing the American economy . The Chicago Board of Trade (established 1848) listed the first-ever standardized "exchange-traded" forward contracts, which were called futures contracts . In

2392-525: The Jefferson Township , which now makes up most of Chicago's Northwest Side . The desire to join the city was driven by municipal services that the city could provide its residents. Chicago's flourishing economy attracted huge numbers of new immigrants from Europe and migrants from the Eastern United States . Of the total population in 1900, more than 77% were either foreign-born or born in

2496-681: The Masons , Knights Templar , the Chicago Union League , and the Country Club of Evanston. He had married Alice A. Hutchins of Chicago in 1883; together they had three children and lived in Evanston . In 1899, the Chicago Tribune took note of "a daylight special train-load of sixteen cars filled with Kingsbury, Cable and Conover Pianos and Chicago Cottage Organs," shipped by the Erie Railroad to

2600-503: The Miami , Sauk and Meskwaki peoples in this region. The first known permanent settler in Chicago was trader Jean Baptiste Point du Sable . Du Sable was of African descent, perhaps born in the French colony of Saint-Domingue (Haiti), and established the settlement in the 1780s. He is commonly known as the "Founder of Chicago." In 1795, following the victory of the new United States in

2704-734: The Music Trade Review reported). Officers in attendance at the Stratford Hotel included Conover, President Shaw; Jonas M. Cleland, vice-president; H. L. Draper, secretary and treasurer; D. G. Keefe, mechanical superintendent; Frank T. Heffelfinger; Tewksbury; H. A. Ware; F. B. Wells. The breadth of the company's sales can be seen in the list of the branches represented: Atlanta ; Cincinnati and Toledo , Ohio; Detroit ; Jacksonville , Florida; Knoxville , Tennessee; Marinette , Wisconsin; Minneapolis and St. Paul , Minnesota; New Orleans , Louisiana; and Richmond , Virginia. The year also saw

2808-578: The New Negro Movement , in art, literature, and music. Continuing racial tensions and violence, such as the Chicago race riot of 1919 , also occurred. The ratification of the 18th amendment to the Constitution in 1919 made the production and sale (including exportation) of alcoholic beverages illegal in the United States. This ushered in the beginning of what is known as the gangster era, a time that roughly spans from 1919 until 1933 when Prohibition

2912-803: The Northwest Indian War , an area that was to be part of Chicago was turned over to the U.S. for a military post by native tribes in accordance with the Treaty of Greenville . In 1803, the U.S. Army constructed Fort Dearborn , which was destroyed during the War of 1812 in the Battle of Fort Dearborn by the Potawatomi before being later rebuilt. After the War of 1812, the Ottawa , Ojibwe , and Potawatomi tribes ceded additional land to

3016-463: The University of Chicago , Northwestern University , and the University of Illinois Chicago , among other institutions of learning . Professional sports in Chicago include all major professional leagues , including two Major League Baseball teams. The name Chicago is derived from a French rendering of the indigenous Miami–Illinois word shikaakwa for a wild relative of the onion ; it

3120-663: The Washington and Jackson Parks. During World War I and the 1920s there was a major expansion in industry. The availability of jobs attracted African Americans from the Southern United States . Between 1910 and 1930, the African American population of Chicago increased dramatically, from 44,103 to 233,903. This Great Migration had an immense cultural impact, called the Chicago Black Renaissance , part of

3224-555: The World's Columbian Exposition , joining dozens of other organ and piano manufacturers in their city's coming-out party. By 1895, the company had built and shipped some 150,000 organs. A catalog issued during this period advertised 25 models of reed organ. On May 1, the company opened a new factory for Conover pianos next to the Paulina Street organ factory; it was soon producing 2,000 pianos annually. It also expanded into several floors of

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3328-713: The concrete grain elevator , owned the Peavey Grain Company of Minneapolis, Minnesota . (His fellow directors were the company president, Shaw; Heffelfinger, heir to another grain fortune; Wells; Cleland; Ware; R.E. Walker; and D.G. Keefe.) The merger did not happen, but Cable took over the Chicago-area sales of pianos made by Bush & Gerts, including the company's showrooms in the Bush Temple of Music at 100 W. Chicago Avenue. (This arrangement would last just two years; Bush & Gerts would return to Chicago-area sales and

3432-443: The 1800s, Chicago became the nation's railroad hub, and by 1910 over 20 railroads operated passenger service out of six different downtown terminals. In 1883, Chicago's railway managers needed a general time convention, so they developed the standardized system of North American time zones . This system for telling time spread throughout the continent. In 1893, Chicago hosted the World's Columbian Exposition on former marshland at

3536-477: The 1850s, Chicago gained national political prominence as the home of Senator Stephen Douglas , the champion of the Kansas–Nebraska Act and the "popular sovereignty" approach to the issue of the spread of slavery. These issues also helped propel another Illinoisan, Abraham Lincoln , to the national stage. Lincoln was nominated in Chicago for U.S. president at the 1860 Republican National Convention , which

3640-872: The 20th century brought a new name— The Cable Company , changed on March 5—and a big new headquarters and showroom in Chicago's Loop area . In 1900, the company leased the brand-new 10-story building at 57 East Jackson Boulevard (on the southeastern corner of E. Jackson and Wabash Ave.). Designed by Holabird and Roche , it became known as the Cable Building during the company's 33-year tenure. The area around this block of Wabash, home to many musical-instrument manufacturers and vendors, became known as Chicago's "Music Row." No vendor's sign flew higher than "Cable Pianos". A sales brochure issued around this time offered 29 styles of reed organ with different designs and varying numbers of stops. The company numbered its organs with serial numbers: e.g., No. 43315 (made in 1892), No. 118189 (1894), No. 250783 (1907), and 260834 (1910). 1900 also saw

3744-681: The 57th mayor of Chicago. Chicago is located in northeastern Illinois on the southwestern shores of freshwater Lake Michigan. It is the principal city in the Chicago Metropolitan Area , situated in both the Midwestern United States and the Great Lakes region . The city rests on a continental divide at the site of the Chicago Portage, connecting the Mississippi River and the Great Lakes watersheds . In addition to it lying beside Lake Michigan, two rivers—the Chicago River in downtown and

3848-573: The Ayer Building (built in 1890 or 1893 as the A. H. Andrews Building) at 215-221 (S.) Wabash Ave. in Chicago. The seven-story building was leased by the Conover Piano Company, which occupied half of the bottom floor while Chicago Cottage Organ Co. used the second floor. (The building would be destroyed on March 16, 1898, in a deadly fire that injured a Conover employee. The company moved down the street to 258 and 260 Wabash.) Around this time,

3952-455: The Chicago River were devastated; by 1933 over 50% of industrial jobs in the city had been lost, and unemployment rates amongst blacks and Mexicans in the city were over 40%. The Republican political machine in Chicago was utterly destroyed by the economic crisis, and every mayor since 1931 has been a Democrat . From 1928 to 1933, the city witnessed a tax revolt, and the city was unable to meet payroll or provide relief efforts. The fiscal crisis

4056-538: The Coan & Ten Broek carriage-factory after a previous occupant. A fire on April 18, 1880, caused damage initially estimated at $ 15,000 to $ 20,000, which was largely if not entirely covered by insurance. The Wolfinger factory made small reed organs—"cottage organs"— but it also turned out furniture, sewing machine tops, elevator cabs, and more. After Cable arrived, the Wolfinger company began to separate out its various products;

4160-572: The Conover factory and another 1,000 in the Mason & Hamlin factory. A 38-year era came to an end in 1918, when the company ceased its production of reed organs. But it had picked up other areas of trade. In 1916, the Cable Company purchased the Percy S. Foster Piano Company, a piano dealership in Washington, D.C. (The store, at 1330 G Street NW, had once supplied four Conover Baby Grands for $ 750 apiece to

4264-527: The Mississippi River. In 1871, the Great Chicago Fire destroyed an area about 4 miles (6.4 km) long and 1-mile (1.6 km) wide, a large section of the city at the time. Much of the city, including railroads and stockyards , survived intact, and from the ruins of the previous wooden structures arose more modern constructions of steel and stone. These set a precedent for worldwide construction. During its rebuilding period, Chicago constructed

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4368-597: The Music Industries called the Cable Co. "One of the largest, most distinguished, enterprising and wealthy concerns in the piano and player-piano industries" and said it was "recognized as one of the 'great leaders' in the trade." Its pianos were sold by "a large number of branch houses and hundreds of agencies" including ones in "the principal cities of Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia". Its Conover pianos were noted as belonging to "the highest grade manufactured". In 1924,

4472-562: The South arrived in the city to work in the steel mills, railroads, and shipping yards. On December 2, 1942, physicist Enrico Fermi conducted the world's first controlled nuclear reaction at the University of Chicago as part of the top-secret Manhattan Project . This led to the creation of the atomic bomb by the United States, which it used in World War II in 1945. Mayor Richard J. Daley ,

4576-483: The Temple of Music in 1907.) That same month, Cable expanded its presence on Music Row by leasing the four-story building at 244 South Wabash Avenue, which adjoined its headquarters building to the south. A renovation created a first-floor recital hall with a Mason & Hamlin pipe organ ; two second-floor showrooms, one for Conover grand pianos and one for Mason & Hamlin grands; a third-floor showroom for uprights, and

4680-612: The United States in the 1816 Treaty of St. Louis . The Potawatomi were forcibly removed from their land after the 1833 Treaty of Chicago and sent west of the Mississippi River as part of the federal policy of Indian removal . On August 12, 1833, the Town of Chicago was organized with a population of about 200. Within seven years it grew to more than 6,000 people. On June 15, 1835, the first public land sales began with Edmund Dick Taylor as Receiver of Public Monies. The City of Chicago

4784-775: The United States of foreign parentage. Germans , Irish , Poles , Swedes , and Czechs made up nearly two-thirds of the foreign-born population (by 1900, whites were 98.1% of the city's population). Labor conflicts followed the industrial boom and the rapid expansion of the labor pool, including the Haymarket affair on May 4, 1886, and in 1894 the Pullman Strike . Anarchist and socialist groups played prominent roles in creating very large and highly organized labor actions. Concern for social problems among Chicago's immigrant poor led Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr to found Hull House in 1889. Programs that were developed there became

4888-411: The United States. The town of Mount Morris has a village also called Mount Morris . The town is on the western border of the county and is home to part of Letchworth State Park . The region was first settled by Europeans circa 1784. It was first known as "Allens Hill", then as "Richmond Hill". The town was formed from the town of Leicester in 1818. The former Genesee Valley Canal passed through

4992-627: The United States." A merger floated in early 1905 would have further padded the company's lead. In March, the Wall Street Journal reported that a $ 5 million merger would combine Cable Piano and its Mason & Hamlin subsidiary with the Bush & Gerts Piano Company and the Strohber Piano Company. The deal was said to be pushed by George W. Peavey, a director of the Cable Company and its principal stockholder. Peavey, whose father had invented

5096-438: The bookselling business impelled him to introduce system in his manufacturing and selling organization, with all that this word implies in modern business management, and perhaps he was the first in the piano industry to profit by the application of scientific accounting . At all events, his success was so rapid, and his business assumed such immense proportions, that it became the wonder of his contemporaries." The first year of

5200-476: The business, though both continued to make pianos under their own names. By 1889, the Chicago Cottage Organ Company was building its own pianos; that year, it made 200 under the name of Chicago Cottage Piano. Still, its main interest in pianos was as a wholesaler of medium-quality instruments made by other companies. In 1891, Herman Cable made an acquisition that would help vault his company into

5304-444: The catalog said. At any given time, some 4,000 organs were in various stages of production, with 2,000 completed sets of internal workings on hand, while 600 to 800 completed organs stood ready for quick shipping. The company reckoned it could produce 18,000 organs a year, or one every 10 minutes, should the public demand it. In 1893, Chicago Cottage and Conover Piano Company exhibited five organs and nine pianos in their double booth at

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5408-553: The city include the central business district, called the Loop , and the North, South , and West Sides . The three sides of the city are represented on the Flag of Chicago by three horizontal white stripes. The North Side is the most-densely-populated residential section of the city, and many high-rises are located on this side of the city along the lakefront. The South Side is the largest section of

5512-529: The city was affected by a series of tenant rent strikes , which lead to the formation of the Chicago Tenants Protective association, passage of the Kessenger tenant laws, and of a heat ordinance that legally required flats to be kept above 68 °F during winter months by landlords. Chicago was the first American city to have a homosexual-rights organization. The organization, formed in 1924,

5616-415: The city's first African American woman mayor and its first openly LGBTQ mayor, was elected to succeed Emanuel as mayor in 2019. All three city-wide elective offices were held by women (and women of color) for the first time in Chicago history: in addition to Lightfoot, the city clerk was Anna Valencia and the city treasurer was Melissa Conyears-Ervin . On May 15, 2023, Brandon Johnson assumed office as

5720-424: The city's first female mayor, was elected. She was notable for temporarily moving into the crime-ridden Cabrini-Green housing project and for leading Chicago's school system out of a financial crisis. In 1983, Harold Washington became the first black mayor of Chicago. Washington's first term in office directed attention to poor and previously neglected minority neighborhoods. He was re‑elected in 1987 but died of

5824-508: The city, encompassing roughly 60% of the city's land area. The South Side contains most of the facilities of the Port of Chicago . Mount Morris, New York Mount Morris is a town in Livingston County , New York , United States. The population was 4,465 at the 2010 census. The town and village were named after Robert Morris , an 18th Century slave trader and Founding Father of

5928-557: The coldest month with an average temperature of 23.4 °F (−4.8 °C). The annual precipitation is 33.05 inches (839 mm). Extreme temperatures range from −22 °F (−30 °C) on January 15, 1957, to 102 °F (39 °C) on July 4, 1897. As of the census of 2000, there were 4,567 people, 1,783 households, and 1,132 families residing in the town. The population density was 90.1 inhabitants per square mile (34.8/km ). There were 1,925 housing units at an average density of 38.0 per square mile (14.7/km ). The racial makeup of

6032-425: The company among the world's top piano producers. The Presto-Times declared it "the largest piano and organ makers in the world". The Music Trade Review listed the company first among leading piano manufacturers, calling it "a great institution which has exercised a potent influence on the music trade of this country" with its "immense wholesale business" and "practically twenty retail stores situated in all parts of

6136-470: The company enter the emerging market for player pianos. The first practical pianola —a piano that could use pneumatic means to play music from rolls of perforated paper—had been developed in 1895 and subsequently produced and marketed by the Aeolian Company . In 1904, the Cable Co. added a department to make its own player pianos, hiring inventor-manufacturer-salesman Paul Brown Klugh to design them and run

6240-637: The company had a store in Knoxville, Tennessee , but had closed its store in Chattanooga . In May 1928, during the 27th annual convention of the National Association of Music Merchants at the Hotel Commodore , Dowling presided over the annual Cable Breakfast, a banquet for its dealers, their families, and other friends of the company at the nearby Hotel Biltmore . But the company was not listed among

6344-441: The company hired Justin Percival Sjoberg to run its Kingsbury production line, which he did for eight years before leaving to found a piano-parts making company. Sjoberg went on to found another company that focused on coin-operated and automated pianos; it became the mammoth Seeburg Corporation . Herman Cable had become a prominent member of Chicago's business and social community; an 1895 capsule biography notes that he belonged to

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6448-419: The company until his death in 1919. In January 1892, the Conover Piano Company began operating as a subsidiary with a Chicago factory at Lake and Peoria Streets. Herman Cable became the president of the Conover firm as well as of the Chicago Cottage Company (whose other officers were Hobart Cable, vice-president; Fayette Cable, secretary; and Tewksbury, treasurer,). The acquisition would turn "the enterprise into

6552-451: The company's namesake family to lead the firm, he subsequently bought the Lakeside Piano Company and the Sweetland Piano Company, added a partner, and in 1905 would rename his firm the Cable-Nelson Company. Over the next 16 years, it would ship a total of 125,000 pianos. The Cable Co.'s new president was Frank S. Shaw, a prominent elder in the Presbyterian Church. He took control of a vigorous company still hungry for growth. In 1904, Cable Co.

6656-407: The convention hall, with anti-war protesters, journalists and bystanders being beaten by police. Major construction projects, including the Sears Tower (now known as the Willis Tower , which in 1974 became the world's tallest building ), University of Illinois at Chicago , McCormick Place , and O'Hare International Airport , were undertaken during Richard J. Daley's tenure. In 1979, Jane Byrne ,

6760-426: The department. Klugh held patents on the Carola and Euphona models, and at the Buffalo Convention of 1910, he would help lead the player-piano industry to standards that would allow rolls to be played on any manufacturers' instruments. The company also sold some 20 pianos that were installed in various State buildings at the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis, Missouri. By year's end, leading trade publications ranked

6864-478: The departure of Hobart Cable, who purchased the Burdett Organ Co. in La Porte, Indiana , and renamed it the Hobart M. Cable Co. The firm would operate until the 1960s; brand licensing would keep new pianos bearing the Hobart name late into the 20th century. In 1901, the company built a second factory about 43 miles west of downtown Chicago in the city of Saint Charles, Illinois . The complex, at 410 South 1st Street, had its own electric plant, and its location near

6968-432: The district and forcing a shutdown of electrical power. The area was shut down for three days and some buildings did not reopen for weeks; losses were estimated at $ 1.95 billion. On February 23, 2011, Rahm Emanuel , a former White House Chief of Staff and member of the House of Representatives , won the mayoral election. Emanuel was sworn in as mayor on May 16, 2011, and won re-election in 2015. Lori Lightfoot ,

7072-457: The exhibitors at the convention itself. In 1929, the Cable Piano Company had several regional-headquarters stores outside Chicago, including in Atlanta (84 North Broad street), Detroit (1264 Library Avenue), Minneapolis (Nicollet Avenue at Eighth Street), and Toledo (209 Superior Street). The arrival of the phonograph in the early 1900s and commercial radio in the 1920s had exerted steadily growing pressure on piano makers. Total U.S. sales for

7176-416: The fair was technological innovation over the century since Chicago's founding. During World War II , the city of Chicago alone produced more steel than the United Kingdom every year from 1939 – 1945, and more than Nazi Germany from 1943 – 1945. The Great Migration, which had been on pause due to the Depression, resumed at an even faster pace in the second wave , as hundreds of thousands of blacks from

7280-455: The first rank of American piano manufacturers, and enable it to offer some of the finest pianos made. He bought the Conover Piano Company and hired its owner and main designer, J. Frank Conover (b. 1843 in Mount Morris, New York ; d. May 20, 1919). A serious student of music and acoustics from a young age, Conover had produced his first piano in 1875 and four years later opened a store with his brother George in Kansas City . He subsequently opened

7384-399: The furniture business, for example, would wind down by 1883. In 1880, the subsidiary that made reed organs was named Chicago Cottage Organ Co. In 1885, the company added two experienced organ makers as partners: E.E. Wise and George W. Tewksbury; both had worked for the Western Cottage Organ Co. of Ottawa, Illinois . Williard Naramore Van Matre, Sr. (1851–1939) joined as sales manager and

7488-564: The industry had peaked around 300,000 in 1924, representing roughly $ 100 million in revenue ($ 1,780,000,000 today). But sales decreased steadily thereafter. In the final year of the Roaring Twenties , piano makers sold an estimated 115,000 instruments. In a sign of the times, Cable's Chicago showroom had begun selling radios, including the Erla screen grid radio from Electrical Research Laboratories at 22nd and Paulina. Chicago Chicago

7592-550: The industry would sell about 250,000 pianos, about one-tenth of which would be player pianos. In 1908, the prices for the company's player pianos were: Conover inner-player piano, $ 900; the Corona inner-player piano, $ 750, the Kingsbury inner-player piano, $ 650, the Euphona inner-player piano, $ 500. In 1913, George Dowling, a sales specialist who joined the company as vice-president in 1908,

7696-571: The largest wholesaler in the world of medium-grade pianos" (1895); "the largest piano and organ makers in the world" (1904); and "one of the 'great leaders' in the trade" (1922). Its premium Conover line of pianos was noted as belonging to "the highest grade manufactured". The decline of the piano market in the late 1920s followed by the Great Depression forced The Cable Company to merge with another northern-Illinois piano maker in 1936, becoming The Schiller Cable Manufacturing Company . In 1950,

7800-620: The largest wholesale and retail trade-in pianos and organs in the world." Ten years into its independent existence, Herman Cable's company was riding a boom that would later be called the Golden Age of the Piano . As household income rose in the years before radio , recorded music , and automobiles became widely available, households and organizations alike purchased pianos and reed organs in prodigious amounts. In 1889, Chicago manufacturers produced some 6,760 pianos; in 1891, 10,900; and in 1892, 13,600. (The country's total estimated production in 1892

7904-451: The lowest points are along the lake shore at 578 ft (176.2 m), while the highest point, at 672 ft (205 m), is the morainal ridge of Blue Island in the city's far south side. Lake Shore Drive runs adjacent to a large portion of Chicago's waterfront. Some of the parks along the waterfront include Lincoln Park , Grant Park , Burnham Park , and Jackson Park . There are 24 public beaches across 26 miles (42 km) of

8008-607: The merged company was subsumed into the Aeolian Company , which closed in 1984. Herman Cable (June 1, 1849-1899), born on a farm in Walton, New York , to Silas and Mary Goodrich Cable, was a student of such precociousness that he was at age 17 elected school principal in Easton, Pennsylvania , and a year later appointed superintendent of schools in Williamsport, Pennsylvania . He later got

8112-411: The opportunity to "enjoy the company-sponsored brass band, choir, exercise classes, or play on the company baseball team." After World War I, many of them were women. The plant would ultimately produce 35 pianos a day—nearly 13,000 a year—and bring the company's annual production capacity to 16,000 pianos and 18,000 organs. In 1903, Fayette Cable stepped down as president of the Cable Company. The last of

8216-498: The present location of Jackson Park . The Exposition drew 27.5 million visitors, and is considered the most influential world's fair in history. The University of Chicago , formerly at another location, moved to the same South Side location in 1892. The term "midway" for a fair or carnival referred originally to the Midway Plaisance , a strip of park land that still runs through the University of Chicago campus and connects

8320-593: The problem of sewage contamination was largely resolved when the city completed a major engineering feat. It reversed the flow of the Chicago River so that the water flowed away from Lake Michigan rather than into it. This project began with the construction and improvement of the Illinois and Michigan Canal, and was completed with the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal that connects to the Illinois River , which flows into

8424-584: The runways. After successfully running for re-election five times, and becoming Chicago's longest-serving mayor, Richard M. Daley declined to run for a seventh term. In 1992, a construction accident near the Kinzie Street Bridge produced a breach connecting the Chicago River to a tunnel below, which was part of an abandoned freight tunnel system extending throughout the downtown Loop district. The tunnels filled with 250 million US gallons (1,000,000 m ) of water, affecting buildings throughout

8528-596: The said place called "Chicagou" which, according to what we were able to learn of it, has taken this name because of the quantity of garlic which grows in the forests in this region. The city has had several nicknames throughout its history, such as the Windy City , Chi-Town, Second City, and City of the Big Shoulders. In the mid-18th century, the area was inhabited by the Potawatomi , an indigenous tribe who had succeeded

8632-486: The shore of Lake Michigan , Chicago was incorporated as a city in 1837 near a portage between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River watershed . It grew rapidly in the mid-19th century. In 1871, the Great Chicago Fire destroyed several square miles and left more than 100,000 homeless, but Chicago's population continued to grow. Chicago made noted contributions to urban planning and architecture , such as

8736-570: The steel industry in Chicago, but the steel crisis of the 1970s and 1980s reduced this number to just 28,000 in 2015. In 1966, Martin Luther King Jr. and Albert Raby led the Chicago Freedom Movement , which culminated in agreements between Mayor Richard J. Daley and the movement leaders. Two years later, the city hosted the tumultuous 1968 Democratic National Convention , which featured physical confrontations both inside and outside

8840-621: The town line following the Genesee is the border of Wyoming County . New York State Route 36 and New York State Route 408 intersect in Mount Morris village. Interstate 390 passes near the east town line. ( Clockwise ) Mount Morris has a humid continental climate ( Köppen Dfb ). The average temperature throughout the year is 47.7 °F (8.7 °C), with the highest average temperature in July being 70.4 °F (21.3 °C), and January being

8944-554: The town was 95.05% White , 0.92% Black or African American , 0.33% Native American , 0.61% Asian , 1.93% from other races , and 1.16% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 4.49% of the population. There were 1,783 households, out of which 31.2% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 43.6% were married couples living together, 13.8% had a female householder with no husband present, and 36.5% were non-families. 28.7% of all households were made up of individuals, and 11.8% had someone living alone who

9048-530: The town. In 1952 Mount Morris Dam was finished on the Genesee River for flood control. According to the United States Census Bureau , the town has a total area of 50.3 square miles (130.3 km ), of which 50.2 square miles (130.0 km ) are land and 0.1 square miles (0.3 km ), or 0.21%, are water. The northwest town line is defined by the Genesee River . The southwestern half of

9152-551: The unemployed. In the spring of 1937 Republic Steel Works witnessed the Memorial Day massacre of 1937 in the neighborhood of East Side. In 1933, Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak was fatally wounded in Miami, Florida , during a failed assassination attempt on President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt . In 1933 and 1934, the city celebrated its centennial by hosting the Century of Progress International Exposition World's Fair . The theme of

9256-625: The visual arts, literature , film, theater , comedy (especially improvisational comedy ), food , dance, and music (particularly jazz , blues , soul , hip-hop , gospel , and electronic dance music , including house music ). Chicago is home to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Lyric Opera of Chicago , while the Art Institute of Chicago provides an influential visual arts museum and art school . The Chicago area also hosts

9360-644: The waterfront. Landfill extends into portions of the lake providing space for Navy Pier , Northerly Island , the Museum Campus , and large portions of the McCormick Place Convention Center. Most of the city's high-rise commercial and residential buildings are close to the waterfront. An informal name for the entire Chicago metropolitan area is "Chicagoland", which generally means the city and all its suburbs, though different organizations have slightly different definitions. Major sections of

9464-458: The world and had dealers in Spain, Italy, British East Africa, Japan, Australia and other key foreign places." The factory would be expanded in 1904 and 1909, to 5.7 acres of workspace on 11 acres of land. Lumber yards stored up to 11 million board-feet of wood. During the factory's heyday there were as many as 500 employees . Known for "its favorable working conditions," the factory offered employees

9568-525: The world's first skyscraper in 1885, using steel-skeleton construction. The city grew significantly in size and population by incorporating many neighboring townships between 1851 and 1920, with the largest annexation happening in 1889, with five townships joining the city, including the Hyde Park Township , which now comprises most of the South Side of Chicago and the far southeast of Chicago, and

9672-405: The world." A sales catalog from the late 1890s boasted of its "three immense buildings" with more than three acres of flooring, plus smaller structures, lumber yards, and more. "Five steel boilers, with an engine of 350 horse power, furnish the necessary power to run more than 100 different kinds of machines, which are of the latest improved patterns and many of them especially designed for our work,"

9776-431: Was John H. Rauch, M.D. Rauch established a plan for Chicago's park system in 1866. He created Lincoln Park by closing a cemetery filled with shallow graves, and in 1867, in response to an outbreak of cholera he helped establish a new Chicago Board of Health. Ten years later, he became the secretary and then the president of the first Illinois State Board of Health, which carried out most of its activities in Chicago. In

9880-411: Was 100,000 pianos, most made by manufacturers in and around New York City and Boston.) The city's production of reed organs was even higher: 46,000 in 1889, 49,300 in 1890, and 55,000 in 1892. Many of them were made by Chicago Cottage Organ Company, which in 1892 produced one-fifth of all U.S.-made reed organs. They were produced at the Paulina Street factory, the "most extensive reed organ manufactory in

9984-452: Was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.46 and the average family size was 3.00. In the town, the population was spread out, with 24.6% under the age of 18, 8.3% from 18 to 24, 28.2% from 25 to 44, 22.5% from 45 to 64, and 16.5% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 38 years. For every 100 females, there were 93.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 87.3 males. The median income for

10088-467: Was called the Society for Human Rights . It produced the first American publication for homosexuals, Friendship and Freedom . Police and political pressure caused the organization to disband. The Great Depression brought unprecedented suffering to Chicago, in no small part due to the city's heavy reliance on heavy industry. Notably, industrial areas on the south side and neighborhoods lining both branches of

10192-425: Was elected president. Klugh, the player-piano expert, became vice-president and a director; he would within two years debut the "Solo-Carona Inner-Player," a player piano whose novel mechanism allowed for more control of dynamics and accent. A 1915 advertisement offered to reimburse train fare to the company's Chicago showroom upon purchase of a piano. Around 1916, The Cable Company produced some 8,000 pianos: 7,000 by

10296-462: Was founded in 1837, most of the early building was around the mouth of the Chicago River, as can be seen on a map of the city's original 58 blocks. The overall grade of the city's central, built-up areas is relatively consistent with the natural flatness of its overall natural geography, generally exhibiting only slight differentiation otherwise. The average land elevation is 579 ft (176.5 m) above sea level . While measurements vary somewhat,

10400-566: Was held in a purpose-built auditorium called the Wigwam . He defeated Douglas in the general election, and this set the stage for the American Civil War . To accommodate rapid population growth and demand for better sanitation, the city improved its infrastructure. In February 1856, Chicago's Common Council approved Chesbrough 's plan to build the United States' first comprehensive sewerage system. The project raised much of central Chicago to

10504-521: Was incorporated on Saturday, March 4, 1837, and for several decades was the world's fastest-growing city. As the site of the Chicago Portage , the city became an important transportation hub between the eastern and western United States. Chicago's first railway, Galena and Chicago Union Railroad , and the Illinois and Michigan Canal opened in 1848. The canal allowed steamboats and sailing ships on

10608-455: Was repealed. The 1920s saw gangsters , including Al Capone , Dion O'Banion , Bugs Moran and Tony Accardo battle law enforcement and each other on the streets of Chicago during the Prohibition era . Chicago was the location of the infamous St. Valentine's Day Massacre in 1929, when Al Capone sent men to gun down members of a rival gang, North Side, led by Bugs Moran. From 1920 to 1921,

10712-469: Was resolved by 1933, and at the same time, federal relief funding began to flow into Chicago. Chicago was also a hotbed of labor activism, with Unemployed Councils contributing heavily in the early depression to create solidarity for the poor and demand relief; these organizations were created by socialist and communist groups. By 1935 the Workers Alliance of America begun organizing the poor, workers,

10816-531: Was spending more than $ 100,000 a year on advertising and "increasing its output in every way possible in order to meet the demand." In February, the company acquired a majority interest in Mason & Hamlin , a struggling Haverhill, Massachusetts -based piano company, in large part so it could use Mason's factory in New York state to manufacture pianos for the New York City market. (Cable would sell its interest in 1924 to

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