Storefront of A. Schoenhut, 1875

In 1872, Albert Schoenhut began to manufacture toys in a storefront at 2337 Frankford Avenue in the Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia. His business, the Schoenhut Piano Company (later renamed the A. Schoenhut Company), specialized in toy pianos but soon branched out into other musical instruments as well. By 1875, Schoenhut was listed in Gopsill’s Philadelphia City Directory as a manufacturer of “patent metallic toy pianos & metallophones.”