Koehler & Campbell Piano Factory (Francis Keil & Sons)

Demolished
Site of the factory (labeled as Francis Keli) from the 1921 Bromley and Co. map of the Bronx
Site of the factory (labeled as Francis Keli) from the 1921 Bromley and Co. map of the Bronx

Location: 401 East 163rd Street; Block: 2391, Lot: 7, in the lot formed by Melrose and Brook Avenues and East 163rd Street, abutting the right of way of the abandoned Port Morris Branch of the Spuyten Duyvil and Port Morris Railroad. In the Bronx Survey Report, it was incorrectly placed on “East 163rd Street between Melrose Avenue and Courtland Avenue.”

Status: Never landmarked or heard, demolished in 1981.

Description from the Bronx Survey:

The handsome red brick industrial building located on a wedge-shaped site bounded by East 165rd Street, Melrose Avenue, the tracks of the Melrose Branch of the N.Y. Central Railroad and Court land Avenue was built between 1885 and 1908 for the hardware manufacturers Francis Keil and Sons. The earliest structure, a one-story foundry for casting hardware, was designed by Charles Steinmetz in 1885. In 1889 Charles S. Clark designed a four-story and basement factory building fronting onto East 163rd Street.

By 1908 Clark had built a series of smaller structures including a one-story coal storage building, several frame structures and a stable, gradually filling in the wedge-shaped block.

The East 163rd St. facade incorporates segmental and round-arched openings , a campanile with bracketed parapet in the Italian Villa style, Romanesque Revival buttresses, corbelled moldings and monumental massing in a blend of styles that is typical of late nineteenth century eclecticism.

A corbelled brick cornice molding, and string course provide horizontal rhythm, which contrasts with the vertical thrust of the shallow brick buttresses separating sets of two and three window bays. Each window is topped by a segmentaily arched brick lintel. The six-story four-faced clock tower is particularly striking with its massive brick quoins, round-arched openings surrounding the clock faces, and limestone keystones and impost blocks. Corbelled moldings separate the arch spandrels from the tower corner while the projecting eaves of the parapet roof are supported by metal brackets. Within the entablature frieze the manufacturer’s name, Francis Keil & Son and ‘heir product, “Hardware”, is displayed.

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