Pipe Organ Database

From Database Builders editor, updated Oct 22, 2016. —

Adam Stein was born c. 1844 in one of the German states; he immigrated to the United States in 1857 (age 13). We have no record of his activities for the first six years in the new country, he must have served as an apprentice during the period as he was active in Baltimore, Maryland by 1863 and still working there the following year. There is a three year gap in our knowledge, but by 1867, he was a partner with George Berger in York, Pennsylvania. He joined the William A. Johnson firm (Johnson & Son after 1874) of Westfield Massachusetts, circa 1870, and was with them for a decade.

In 1880, he left the Johnson firm, and opened his own shop in Baltimore. The Roosevelt firm must have contracted Stein to do work for them as the Baltimore German language newspaper, Der Deutsche Correspondent, Sept 15, 1882 gives a paragraph about the �rst Baltimore-built organ going to New York with the Roosevelt nameplate, having been built in the Stein Shop on German Street. This apparently culminated in Roosevelt purchasing the shop and making it a branch of the Roosevelt firm with Stein as manager. After nine years managing the Baltimore branch, he was moved to the Roosevelt main facility in New York City, New York in 1889, as superintendent. Stein was at the main office for a year or two before he returned to the Baltimore branch. In 1892, he re-established his own firm, Stein Organ Works, in Baltimore, and worked there until his death on 8 August, 1922. He was succeeded by his son, Edwin A. Stein.

Adam Stein held a single patent: Patent #106,884; 30 Aug. 1870; pneumatic draw valve.

Sources:

• Orpha Ochse, The History of the Organ in the United States (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1975), 292. 
• "A Short History of Henry Niemann" Newsletter of the Hilbus Chapter of the Organ Historical Society, Kevin M. Clemens, editor. October 2014, 45:2, 3.

From the OHS PC Database, derived from A Guide to North American Organbuilders, by David H. Fox (Richmond, Va.: Organ Historical Society, 1991). —

Adam Stein was born c. 1844 in Germany ; he immigrated to the United States in 1857. He was active in Baltimore, Maryland by 1863 and still working there the following year. By 1867, he was a partner with George Berger in York, Pennsylvania. He joined the William A. Johnson firm of Westfield Massachusetts, circa 1870.

In 1880, he left the Johnson firm, and returned to Baltimore, where he was the manager of the Roosevelt firm branch in that city. He was at the Roosevelt main facility in New York City, New York in 1889, as superintendent. Stein was at the main office for a year or two before he returned to the Baltimore branch. In 1892, he re-established his own firm, Stein Organ Works, in Baltimore, and worked there until his death on 8 August, 1922. He was succeeded by his son, Edwin A. Stein.

Patent #106,884; 30 Aug. 1870; pneumatic draw valve.

Sources:

• Diapason, September 1922, 24.
• Local directories of the place and period.
• Martin Kares, The German Element in American Organbuilding, 1700-1900 (dissertation, Marburg 1990). 
• Orpha Ochse, The History of the Organ in the United States (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1975), 292.