The Steinway Churches

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On the 400 acres that Steinway and Sons owned in western Queens, New York City, William Steinway established a Village around his piano factory. It included houses for workers and in 1879, a church. The non-denominational Protestant Union Church was located on the southeast corner of 20th Road and 41st Street in the Bowery Bay ward of Long Island City, on property donated by William Steinway. By 1889, the building which accommodated 500 people, had grown too small for the expanding congregation(2) Then William again donated land for a new and larger church on what is now Ditmars Boulevard and 41st Street, where the building still stands. The church was completed and dedicated in 1891and became part of the national Reformed Church in America that same year. It is still known today as the Steinway Reformed Church.

As early as 1856, a group of leading residents of Astoria ran a Sunday school in an old school building and later built an addition as student numbers grew. At the same time, ministers from nearby churches held prayer meetings in the school. The school burned down in 1875, and the Sunday school activities had to be transferred to several other locations(3)(4)

A committee of three leaders of the community, William Steinway, D.S. Riker and Luke Kouwenhoven, then undertook to raise funds from people of various denominations for the building of a church. William donated two lots of land and later a piano to the church. The non-denominational church built on the corner of 20th Road and 41st Street in the Bowery Bay ward of Astoria was called the Protestant Union Church. William was elected and later re-elected President of the Church Trustees(3)

The dedication of the one-story structure - “our little Church,” as William called it – took place on November 23, 1879. Pastor Bartholomew Krusi of the German Presbyterian Church in Manhattan, who performed weddings, baptisms and funerals of Steinway family members and other prominent New Yorkers, helped William organize the event. Reverend Charles Steinfuhrer, highly respected pastor of Second Reformed German Church in Astoria, officiated at the Church dedication. William and members of his male quartet along with several friends from the Liederkranz sang “The Chapel” and “This on the Lord's Day” at the ceremonial opening.(Diary, 1879-11-18, 11-23) The church was loosely organized, and the pulpit filled by local clergymen and students from Union Theological Seminary. But the church eventually became too small for the flourishing congregation(3)

In October, 1889, William Steinway noted in his Diary, the “Trustees of the Steinway Church and ladies … decide to sell Church property and erect new Church at corner Ditmars Ave and Albert Street... Old Church property to be sold to me at fair appraisal price and building to be turned into a free Kindergarten and free Circulating Library.”(Diary, 1889-10-02) Steinway and Sons bought the land for the new church for $3000. William's brother, the deceased Theodor Steinway, had allocated $5000 in his will for the building of a new church. William Steinway added $2000 and Luke Kouwenhoven gave $4000.(1) On June 15, 1890, William presided over the laying of the cornerstone of the new church, with the Grand Lodge of Masons in the State of New York playing an active role.(3)(Diary, 1890-6-15) Sunday school children sang on the occasion and the Harmonia singing group performed “This is the Day of the Lord.”(1)

The church, which could seat 800 people, was completed in May 1891. William donated a Jardine pipe organ that was formerly in Steinway Hall and was said to have originally cost $10,000. The organ had more than 8,000 pipes, and it required an extension of 28x25 feet to be built in the back of the church in order to receive it.(4)

The new Church was made of wood and built in a modified French Gothic style. There was room for 600 children in the Sunday school, but attendance quickly topped 800. The building was heated by steam and boasted all the modern conveniences of the day.(4)

Steinway Pritestant Union Church
from Illustrated Pamphlet on the Founding and Development
of Steinway, N.Y. (Long Island City) published by
Steinway & Sons, date unknown
Courtesy of Henry Z. Steinway Archive

To inaugurate the new church, William Steinway “promised to give a concert in the new edifice quite equal to first-class New York City concerts.”(4)William’s concert took place on May 28, 1891, and featured professional musicians: pianist Franz Rummel, organist William Macfarlane, violinist Jeanne Franko, cellist Rosa Linde, soprano Emma Heckle, and bass singer Max Treumann. William declared after the concert: “Acoustic properties of the Church are Fine.”(Diary, 1891-05-28)

The church officers including William Steinway as President were all re-elected to the board of trustees on September 12, 1894. Several offered further financing for the new church. William noted, “I donate about $1000 ...and Luke Kouwenhoven $850 which he advanced on the parsonage. Both Church and Parsonage are free & clear from Debt.”(Diary, 1894-09-12)

The congregation soon recognized that the church needed a more coherent administrative structure and voted to become part of the Reformed Church in America denomination in November 1891. Its first pastor in the Reformed tradition was Reverend Uria Gulik.(1)

The Steinway Reformed Church still stands and is in use at Ditmars Boulevard and 41st Street in Astoria.
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Sources:

1. “Cornerstone Placed for a Church in Steinway,” New Yorker Staats-Zeitung, June 15, 1890, p. 11.
2. Lieberman, Richard K. Steinway & Sons. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995, p. 79.
3. Steinway Reformed Church, The Golden Jubilee Chronicle of the Steinway Reformed Church, November 23 and 30, 1941.
4.“Steinway’s New Church,” The Musical Courier, April 1, 1891, p. 322.