Steinway & Sons Piano Factory, ca. 1902.

Steinway & Sons Pianos were first created by Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg (later Anglicized to Henry E. Steinway). The first Steinway piano was built in 1853 in Manhattan and was sold for $500. The company grew quickly. The factory moved from its second home at 52nd Street and Fourth Avenue to 400 acres in Astoria, Queens in 1873. Another factory opened in Hamburg, Germany. The Hamburg branch was founded by Steinway's eldest son, who had stayed behind when the rest of the family emigrated to the United States.

Between 1870 and 1880, the company established "Steinway Village," an entire neighborhood dedicated to the manufacture of their pianos. It was a fully functioning community, complete with sawmill, foundry, post office, parks, worker housing, schools, and streetcar line developed by Henry Steinway, the company's founder.

Steinway pianos are all still handcrafted in Queens. Today the main structure, with a 1955 addition, houses the space to produce 1,000 pianos per year, with production following the building's vertical flow from bottom to top. The process begins in the lumber yard with the curing and drying of woods, then shifts to a rim-conditioning room on the second floor, where the bending of the casework is completed. Moving between the second and third floors, the casing becomes the piano shape as mechanical booms lower cast-iron plates to form the rim, after which the keyboard, soundboard, and strings are installed. The piano is polished, and final testing occurs to complete the almost year-long production process.