Sohmer and Company Piano Factory

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2014. 15 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1891.

From the record

“Sohmer and Company Piano Factory is a historic piano factory located in the Astoria neighborhood of Queens, New York City. It was built in 1886 by Sohmer & Co., and is a six-story, L-shaped, Rundbogenstil / Romanesque Revival style brick building.”
Wikipedia article Sohmer and Company Piano Factory, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 108 National Register listings published here for Queens County · listed in 2014 · category: Building.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 building as contributing to the listing.
Address. 31-01 Vernon Blvd., Queens, 11102
When was it listed? February 2014
Category. building
Borough. Queens
Architectural style. Rundbogenstil, Romanesque Revival architecture
National Register reference number. 14000007 - assigned by the National Park Service when the property was listed.

Then and now

1891 to 1995

The ground this property stands on, surveyed 104 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet covering Sohmer and Company Piano Factory, surveyed 1995

Topographic sheet covering Sohmer and Company Piano Factory, surveyed 1891

Fires near this property

2,021 since 1995

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 2,021 fires within 5 miles of Sohmer and Company Piano Factory between 1995 and 2020, burning about 523 acres in total. 126 started naturally. 121 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1342
Smoking	144
Natural	126
Arson/incendiarism	121
Equipment and vehicle use	82
Debris and open burning	71
Misuse of fire by a minor	68
Recreation and ceremony	46
Fireworks	8
Power generation/transmission/distribution	6
Railroad operations and maintenance	5
Other causes	2

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
9 September 2016	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	N/A
9 September 2015	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	NA
9 September 2014	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
9 September 2010	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
9 September 2005	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
9 September 2005	Smoking	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
9 September 2005	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
9 September 2005	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named

Every fire recorded in Queens County

Mines and quarries near this property

10 of 14 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 14 workings within 5 miles of Sohmer and Company Piano Factory: 10 occurrences, 4 past producers. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Iron, Stone, Crushed/Broken, Garnet, Beryllium. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
102nd St & 4th Ave Garnet Deposit	Garnet, Gemstone	Occurrence
155th St & 10th Ave Garnet Deposit	Garnet, Zirconium	Occurrence
64th St & 10th Ave Stilbite Deposit	Zeolites	Occurrence
69th/70th Sts & 2nd Ave Deposit	Iron, Garnet, Titanium	Occurrence
Manhattan Island Occurrence	Molybdenum	Occurrence
National Gypsum/ Bronx Mill	Gypsum-Anhydrite	Past Producer
159th St & 11th Ave Beryl Deposit	Beryllium	Occurrence
49th St & 1st Ave Beryl Deposit	Beryllium	Occurrence
John S. Lane and Son's Quarry	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Past Producer	1897
Wagner & Duff Stone Quarry	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Past Producer	1890, 1895

Every working recorded in Queens County

Storms near this property

1 since 1997

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Queens, the town this property stands in, in 1 storm report in 1997: 1 thunderstorm wind. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
August 1997	Thunderstorm Wind	Queens	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Queens County

Maps showing this location

15 surveys

United States Geological Survey topographic sheets whose coverage includes this point. Matched by taking the coordinate the National Park Service records for this property, then testing that coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet.

1891 USGS Harlem quadrangle1:62500
1897 USGS Harlem quadrangle1:62500 - 4 printings
1898 USGS Harlem quadrangle1:62500
1900 USGS Harlem quadrangle1:62500 - 16 printings
1947 USGS Central Park quadrangle1:24000
1949 USGS New York quadrangle1:250000
1954 USGS New York quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1956 USGS Central Park quadrangle1:24000 - 2 printings
1957 USGS New York quadrangle1:250000
1958 USGS New York quadrangle1:250000 - 3 printings
1960 USGS New York quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1966 USGS Central Park quadrangle1:24000 - 4 printings
1969 USGS New York quadrangle1:250000
1984 USGS Long Island West quadrangle1:100000 - 2 printings
1995 USGS Central Park quadrangle1:24000

Listed places nearby

6 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Property	Distance	Listed
Astoria Center of Israel	0.6 miles	2009
Trinity Lutheran Church	1.0 miles	2008
Bohemian Hall and Park	1.0 miles	2001
Paramount Studios Complex	1.1 miles	1978
Hunters Point Historic District	1.8 miles	1973
Long Island City Courthouse Complex	1.8 miles	1983

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 14000007 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Queens County	All 108 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.