 |
 |
The Oscar Schmidt business ceased operations many years ago. The description below is from Jersey City Of To-Day, 1910, Walter G. Muirheid, editor.
 |
Oscar Schmidt was born in Germany in 1857, and came to this country at an early age. He engaged in the publishing business in 1882, and continued therein until 1896, when he started the manufacture of musical instruments in a small shop in the two-story repair shop of the North Hudson Street Railway Company on Palisade Avenue in the Hudson City, section. At that time the use of musical instruments was by no means as general as at the present day, but the business increased with the demand until his present factory at 87 Ferry Street is now the largest establishment of its kind in the United States, occupying over 30,000 square feet of floor space.
The output of this factory in string instruments is the largest of any one concern in the world, and the products are sold in every corner of the globe where musical instruments are used. Over a million guitars, zithers and patented musical instruments made in Jersey City by Mr. Schmidt have been sold since he started in business, and he is now the largest manufacturer of instruments at all prices in the United States. His storage yards for the lumber used in the construction of the instruments give some idea by their vastness of the amount of business that he does. He has just patented the Schmidt Pianotina which he will shortly place on the market, and which will be the cheapest and smallest piano in the world. The advance orders show the sales of this instrument will be very large. |
