Piano rebuilder John Ford stood in the midst of over 30 pianos in various stages of assembly, as picturesque in his old-fashioned apron as his Main Street shop overlooking the Hudson.

One piano he was in the process of refinishing gleamed richly with burnished mahogany tones, its inner working shiny like gold.

“I get all my pleasure rebuilding pianos,” he said. ‘I’m happy because I love doing it.”

Ford, 46, employs a half dozen people and has a specially-trained crew to transport treasured pianos from the customer’s home to his shop. He also makes house calls to tune pianos and do minor repairs.

Ford’s business has been in Manhattan, and then at his home in Cortlandt Manor. He moved his work to 417 Main Street near Water Street, last summer. Sometimes replacement parts for vintage pianos are available, and sometimes Ford custom-makes them.

Another of his specialties is “voicing,” the regulating and adjusting of sound, as he defined it.

One of the most interesting pieces in the shop is a player piano featuring “complete expression from very soft to very loud.” Its owner has piano rolls made by Rachmaninoff and Pederewski, and the piano reproduces the sounds exactly as played by the masters.

Ford is full of advice for those who would like to own a piano.

“Let’s say you have nine or ten grand. You can get an Oriental piano for that and you can also get a rebuilt American piano for that. In 10 years that Oriental piano will probably be worth less than half of what you paid for it. The rebuilt American will hold its value or appreciate.”

There are other advantages to buying American.

“The tone in many, many cases can be superior to a new piano. It’s a very esoteric thing, a combination of materials, labor, design, and manufacturing techniques,” he said.

Ford spins tales of the heyday of the piano industry and the accomplishments of his immigrant grandfather, John Fekete, with as much enthusiasm as he rebuilds and fine-tunes the prized instrument.

Fekete, who came here from Hungary, Americanized the family name to Ford during the 1950′s. He operated a piano repair business, which he eventually sold. Ford’s father operated a piano supply business offering tools and piano parts, which he in turn sold when he retired.

There was once a time in America when almost every home, church, and meeting place had a piano. Friends and family gathered around a piano player tickling the ivories, or a player piano reproducing music from a roll.

That was at the turn of the century, when ‘believe it or not, the piano industry was the largest in the country in terms of the amount of people employed,” said Ford.

Over 200 factories hummed with activity in New York City alone. Fekete was a foreman at many of these, including Steinway.

Early pianos were manufactured without benefit of electricity. ‘People would come to work with the sun – factories were built with lots of windows – and work until the sun went down,” Ford said.

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Below, John Ford, owner of Ford Piano Rebuilding in Peekskill, plays a 1909 small grand Steinway piano that he rebuilt in his shop. Not shown, Chris Gonzalez, an employee, reattaches the lyre and pedal assembly on the vintage piano, which is being sold for $28,000. Ford, a third-generation rebuilder, specializes in rebuilding, repairing and tuning pianos. He came to his craft by way of his grandfather, Janos Fekete, who emigrated from Hungary in 1895, and worked in many piano factories before starting the family’s business. Ford, an accomplished musician, plays every instrument he tunes or repairs to make sure that it is properly adjusted. Recently, he has been looking for a space in Northern Westchester, where he hopes to start a piano museum.

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By Susan Chitwood

John Ford has rebuilt pianos for any number of famous professional musicians, including John Lennon, Roberta Flack and Stephen Soundheim.

He has also restored pianos for the rich amateur musician, including Middle Eastern Sheik whose malachite grand piano needed resuscitation.

But when Ford chose new quarters last year for his workshop and showroom, he landed at the site of the old McCrory’s in downtown Peekskill, neither glamourous nor exotic.

The old five-and-dime shines like a new penny, though, with 80 feet of window glass fronting 15 South Division Street, where lustrous black pianos hold court in 15,000 square feet.

“I’m quite happy here,” the former Manhattanite said, “I believe my presence here is going to pick up the neighborhood a bit.’

The third -generation rebuilder had been searching for new space after out-growing his 5000 square foot Water Street atelier, and the McCrory’s site had been vacant for at least six years, former mayor Fran Gibbs said.

The city’s Industrial Development Agency, which owns the building,had been unable to secure a tenant as part of a downtown revitalization effort because of its size.

“We were pretty excited when he indicated his interest,” Gibbs said.  “We were excited about his plans, too, because it’s a unique business.  It’s amazing what they do.”

Pianos are rebuilt every 50 to 100 years because they wear out.  Ford and his crew of specialists can install new strings, sounding boards, keys and hammers and restore the finish.

“A piano is essentially a conglomeration of steel, wood, felt, iron, ivory and brass,” Ford said.  “It’s an unusual, complicated instrument.

“We knock it apart and make it like new again.  The beauty of it is watching their faces when (the owners) come in.”

Ford modestly conceded that he gets calls from all over the country because he does “have a bit of a reputation”and “reputation is key.  My employees regard quality as something to strive for.”

One call came from a little old lady on East 72nd Street.  “She said my grandfather sold her her piano in 1922 and asked did we want to buy it.

“I went down there,  We  bought it, rebuilt and sold it to someone out here,” Ford said.

With an additional 10,000 feet of space available, Ford now sells pianos, and not just to Broadway legends and Middle Eastern potentates.  His selection runs the gamut from from old to new, starter uprights to fancy concert grands.

But what about piano music?

Before the customers return for the unveiling, Ford tests his work.  “Every one we finish I sit and play for a while to get as much tone as possible,” he said.  “That  important.”

His test run is a blues and jazz improvisation although he’s  a classically trained pianist.  ” I promptly forgot all that, ” he said.

With any luck, Peekskill will have not just a new business, but a new business producing live music.  Nothing’s definite yet as Ford Piano is still under construction, but a grand opening in march could feature top-shelf pianists, Ford said, and he hopes to give recitals in the future on special occasions. Who knows, maybe the maestro himself will play us a tune as lovely as his hymn to the downtown.

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John Ford started Ford Piano Co. in 1985 in Peekskill to carry on a century-old family tradition that his grandfather brought to America from Hungary.

John Fekete, who emigrated to the United States from Hungary in the 1890s, opened Fekete Pianos about 1912 or 1913 in Manhattan.

Fekete ran the shop until his death in 1957, passing on the business to his son, John, who changed his family name to Ford and the name of the business to Ford Piano Co.

Meanwhile, John started a new business: Ford Piano Supplies. He sold both businesses five years ago when he retired. He died in 1999.

His son, John Jr., who was “pretty much born in the piano shop,” started his own company in 1985 to keep alive the family tradition. Since its founding, Ford Piano Co.’s growth “has been phenomenal,” he said.

In 1985, it was a one-man operation. Today, it employs six workers and grosses $300,000 yearly.

“We pretty much have a waiting list of people who want our pianos,” Ford said. “We have a lot of work. I’m blessed with people who love to work as much as I do. It’s fun to do this sort of thing.”

Ford Piano rebuilds and sells about 100 pianos a year.

“We’re basically rebuilding specialists,” Ford said. “We also sell new pianos. We have a sales showroom in the old 5- and 10-cent store in the middle of the artists’ district in Peekskill.”

Bronxville resident Lee Schwartz, 70, has known the owner of Ford Piano since age 12. He first met John Ford Sr. when he came to the youngster’s home to tune his piano.

Later, Schwartz went down to Fekete’s shop in Manhattan, and they became friends. Eventually, he worked with Ford Piano as a subcontractor.

“To me, to be able to take wood and metal and make great sounds out of them is the most exciting part of making a piano,” said Schwartz.

What also made his work at Ford Piano enjoyable was the attitude of its owners.

“I cannot put a finger on it,” Schwartz said. “They were nice people to work with. They’re very attentive to the needs of the other people in the field.”

During his nearly 60-year involvement, the piano business has undergone many changes, most notably the emergence of Japanese piano makers like Yamaha as dominant players in the industry.

He’s also noticed a disturbing trend: a dearth of piano repair people. Nationwide, Schwartz said, 600,000 pianos are sold every year, so in a decade some six million pianos will need servicing. There simply aren’t enough people to meet the need, he added.

In Westchester, about a dozen people can repair pianos. He had no idea how many pianos are sold yearly in the county.

“We have quite a number of wealthy people in Westchester,” Schwartz said. “I suggest every one of them has a piano.”

John Jr.’s foray into the business goes back to his childhood in the 1960s.

“I started at a very young age,” said Ford, 51. “I was pretty much born in the piano shop. My father did not believe in the child labor law. He used to say, ‘If a child can walk, put a screwdriver in his hand.’”

Ford, who grew up in Manhattan, took piano lessons for a dozen years as a child and “always enjoyed working with my hands. Time seems to go very fast that way,” he said.

What’s the most exciting aspect of Ford Piano Co.?

Rebuilding a piano is the most exciting aspect of the job, Ford said.

“I do derive a certain amount of satisfaction seeing the instrument all done and beautiful,” he said.

To him, restoring a piano to its original beauty is a work of art that quenches his creative thirst.

“We’re taking an object that is 100 years old and putting in all the parts and rebuilding the beauty that will last another 100 years. That’s exciting,” he said.

“When we get a piano, we spend months and months on it. When we’re done, it is a magnificent instrument. There’s a sense of gratification. That happens a lot.”

Ford Piano’s customers include individual musicians, concert halls and “private parties who appreciate music.” Parents whose children take lessons also buy pianos.

“I firmly believe that every home should have a piano in it because it’s a thing of beauty,” Ford said.

Joel Martin, a Tarrytown resident who plays piano with the New York Philharmonic and Philadelphia Orchestra, bought his first piano from Ford Piano seven years ago.

“When I told him what my requirements were, he said ‘I think I have one,’” Martin said, referring to John Jr. “The first piano he showed me, I ended up buying it.”

Martin has since referred more than 150 customers to Ford.

“I think when they want the absolute best, he is my first choice,” Martin said. “He has a lot of honesty and integrity toward his work. As a person, he delivers the goods.”

Over time, piano aficionados’ tastes for the instrument have changed, especially their preferences for appearances and shades. But this is nothing unusual, Ford said.

“Different colors come and go,” he said. “They would go out of fashion and then they would come back in fashion.”

Red mahogany pianos were popular in the 1960s, then fell out of favor in the 1970s as walnut came to the fore.

“Now, mahogany is popular and walnut is not,” Ford said. “People change. It has nothing to do with the instrument.”

As for the looks, he said antique-looking legs ranked high in popularity in the early 20th century. By mid-century, “modern-looking” pianos were the vogue.

“Now, people request the old look – antique looking,” Ford said.

The price of pianos also has changed. In the 1950s, a good quality piano cost $500 compared to as much as $25,000 today, Ford said.

A small “nice upright” sells for $2,000 while a rebuilt Steinway can fetch $25,000, Ford said.

“We have both kinds of pianos and everything in between,” he said.

While running a thriving business is satisfying, Ford is equally pleased by the fact that his family has enriched the music world.

“My grandfather is credited with coining the phrase ‘Baby Grand,’ which refers to a small grand piano,” he said. “My father invented tools and concussions that have become standards in the industry.”

“I do have a national reputation. Within the last year we rebuilt and shipped pianos to Alaska, Georgia, Maryland, all over New England and North Carolina,” Ford said.

Ford said he is often surprised when people call him to say they bought a piano from his grandfather 60 years ago and ask if he can repair it for them.

Of course, he can.

“We’re not a fly-by-night operation,” said Ford. “We are here to stay.”

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John Ford Jr. Can Rebuild an Instrument From the Bottom Up…

Like people, pianos decay over time. The instruments seem to be static, but the strings exert 20 tons of pressure on the frame, which eventually tears the inside compartment apart.  The passing years also ravage the finish and the intricate mechanism known as the action, a series of joints and levers that link the keys with the hammers that strike the strings.

Pianos have one major advantage over humans, though: They can be overhauled to a state as pristine as the day they left the factory floor.

In the piano-rebuilding business, most of the work is done by specialists.  Belly experts fix cracks in the soundboard and repair the pinblock, which holds the tuning pegs of the piano.  Refinishers are the trade’s cosmetic surgeons.  Action masters ensure that each key lines up straight and that the hammers hit the strings at the proper angle with the right amount of force.  Tuners add the final touch, turning discord into harmony.

As a general practitioner in a field characterized by a strict division of labor, John Ford Jr. is an anomaly.  Mr. Ford’s expertise in all phases of piano rebuilding results from his unusual upbringing, where he learned at the hands of two masters, his grandfather Janos Fekete and his father for whom he is named.

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Signs tentative deal to acquire Hermax building.

By Brian J. Howard

John Ford has grand plans for downtown Peekskill, and he’s hopeful a deal he swung last week with the city will make them real.

Ford owns Ford Piano, a  piano rebuilding business on Division Street, and lists John Lennon, Stephen Sondheim, and Madison Square Garden among his clients. He reached a tentative agreement last week to buy the historic Hermax building next door for $325,000. The deal would clear the way for a music hall at the corner of Division and Brown streets.

The Cortlandt Manor resident said he already filed plans with the city planning commission to build a 4,000-square-foot music hall at 15-23 Division St., adjacent to his storefront workshop, replete with a dance floor, table seating and a performance stage designed by a sound engineer for optimal acoustics and big enough for a full orchestra.

“You may think this is a little grandiose of me,” Ford said last week, “but Steinway has Steinway Hall (in Manhattan) and Bosendorfer has Bosendorfer Hall (in Vienna). Why can’t Ford Piano have Ford Hall?”

The Peekskill Industrial Development Agency – the arm of the city government that technically owns the property – met last week and authorized Chairman Vincent Vesce to execute the contract of sale. Vesce, a former Peekskill mayor, must sign off on it before sending it to the common council for approval.  Councilwoman Cathy Pisani, who sits on the IDA board, said the agreement was “well on its way.”

“It’s the right thing to do,” Pisani said. “And I’m glad someone as reputable as John Ford is doing it. I’m sure his plan will be completed.  He’s not a pie-in-the-sky guy, and I’m sure this project will come to fruition.”

Ford envisions the music hall feeding off the Paramount Center for the performing arts. It’s that kind of development he saw revive his working class East Side neighborhood into an upscale entertainment destination in the 1950′s.  He’s sure it would offer similar benefits to Peekskill.

“Entertainment was the catalyst for this stuff,” he said. “I’ve seen it happen in my own hometown. There’s no reason it can’t happen in a town like this.  I know it will happen and my property values will go up.”

The agreement Ford reached with the IDA requires that he repair the Hermax building’s crumbling facade and remove the blue scaffolding out front.  He must also maintain the second-floor artists studios.

The basement area would be used as increased storage space for his 15,000-square-foot piano business. The music hall would occupy the main floor.  With just a handful of places in Peekskill that feature live music, Ford envisions a growing downtown music scene.  He hopes to create a place where musicians would want to come and play.

“Living in Manhattan, my prerequisite was to be in walking distance to a jazz club,” he said. “Up here I’ve got to make my own club.”

Besides Ford’s reputation, the city is confident he will follow through with his plans because of his success since he moved his business up from Water Street three years ago in larger quarters on Division Street. The space had gone unoccupied for years. Ford provided the city with rental income and contributed a growing business to downtown revitalization.

Peekskill has emphasized finding creative new uses for old structures downtown. The former Steinbachs building and the Paramount East are two examples.

It’s “an anchor location in the downtown,” Pisani said of the Hermax building. “It’s extremely important to upgrade that area.”

The family business

Ford Piano specializes in restoring old pianos, most built between the 1870′s and the 1960′s.  Ford himself represents his family’s third generation in the business. A fourth generation, his sons, is in the training.

His grandfather, a cabinet-maker named Janos Fekete, came to New York from Hungary in the early 1900′s and adapted to piano building.  Business was booming since pianos were a common form of home entertainment.  The industry has actually been in decline for about 80 years, Ford said.

Fekete excelled at the craft in the business and made the crucial decision to remain in New York when much of the industry moved South. “He liked hanging out with his cronies, speaking Hungarian in the street,” Ford said.

Once in a while, he’ll get a Fekete piano in his shop.  Fekete’s son, John P., was the first to take the name Ford.  The younger John Ford remembers his father as a genius, who profited well from his ability to craft unique piano tools that are now industry standards.  Neither he nor the younger John Ford ever did anything but piano rebuilding, both growing up in the family workshops they came to own.

A musical vision

The music hall concept goes back 20 years for Ford.  A musician, un-like his father and grandfather, Ford has long dreamt of creating a space to play, and see played, the fine instruments restored in his shop.  His ambitions don’t stop there.

Along with friend and fellow Peekskill resident Dr. Richard Jordan, a sociologist, Ford plans to establish a non profit organization aimed at providing musical training and instruments to allow talented young people in Peekskill schools to develop their abilities.

The idea is that a musical talent, like athletic ability or other skills, can be a deterrent to drugs or other negative choices, Jordan explained.  “The philosophy is based on (the idea that) if we help children identify their talents when they’re very young,” Jordan said,  ‘then they have a reason to say no to some of the things
they will be faced with when they grow up.

‘We say no when we have some thing to protect, he added.

Jordan is in the process of filling papers with the state.  Ford said the building purchase clears the way for the nonprofit, which is as much about helping kids as it is about music.  He said Jordan is key to that effort.

“This cat played with Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker.”  Ford said “This is a really cool cat, and he’s my close buddy.

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Discussing Piano Rebuilding with Peekskill’s John P. Ford Jr. is like talking to Bill Gates about computers.  Ford seems to know everything about the instrument.  After all, pianos are his passion.  He loves them – how they look, how they sound and, most of all, he loves to fix them.  “The process of rebuilding pianos is meditative,” says Ford.  “Plus it’s art.  When you’re done you have a thing of great beauty and great sound.”   It can take Ford up to three months to rebuild a piano and the project can cost up to $15,000, which considering the cost of a new-piano a Steinway begins at $35,000-may not seem like much.  Among his better-known clients (past and present):  John Lennon, Stephen Soundheim, Roberta Flack, Barry Manilow and the group Fleetwood Mac.Does he himself play the instrument?  “Pianos are my vocation and avocation,” he answers. “Some guys play poker or bowl to relax.   I play piano.”  Ford owns a 9- foot-long, 60-year-old Steinway concert grand.

But more and more it seems you don’t need to know how to play to enjoy it.  “We install players in the pianpianos nowadays. Just pay your Con Edison bills and you’ll hear music.”

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A former department store known as the Hermax building is due to become home to an estimated 200- seat music hall.

John Ford, a businessman with a local piano refurbishing business who is finalizing a deal to purchase the property at 15-27 South Division Street, plans to convert the building into performance space for recitals concerts and dances.

“I want a place with a stage that is acoustically vibrant,” Ford said.  “A place to play music – from Reggae to Rockmoninoff.”  Ford and a partner plan to create a nonprofit group that will train talented school children in the performing and visual arts for free.  The nonprofit will be a separate organization that will be located inside the building.

Ford said Peekskill resident Richard Jordan, a former jazz musician and corporate executive, came up with the idea.

“We were able to take lessons as kids and not because our parents could afford them “Ford said.  “If we get one kid involved, we thought that would be something good.”

Ford purchased the Hemax building from the city’s Industrial Development Agency for $325.000.  Negotiations with the IDA began in the 1990s.  Ford said he is about two month from closing the deal.  “Originally, I wanted to use the music hall to showcase pianos,” Ford said.  “But I also wanted a place where I could listen to some good music in my hometown.”

The city expects the hall will attract crowds into the area.  City officials have said the arts are a key part of the revitalization of Peekskill’s downtown economy.

“There really is not a venue like this in the area right now,” said Carla Williams, the city’s director of economic development.  “It will offer musicians new opportunities.”

The city is having a celebration of the purchase and redevelopment of the building at 9:30 a.m. today.  “We’re excited about the project,” said Alice Jane Bryant, executive director of the Paramount Center for the Arts.  “It will help us meet our dream of creating a cultural center in Peekskill.  On either side of us there are wonderful things happening.”

The Paramount, at 1008 Brown Street, is within walking distance of the Hermax building.  It is also doors down from a building formerly known as the Paramount East building at 1016 Brown Street.

A Peekskill construction company is proposing to create professional office space and artists lofts in the Paramount East building, the city announced recently.  Fourmen Construction purchased the building.  The company plans to lease the lower level to the city for cultural and recreational events.

A music hall will be constructed on the ground floor of the two story Hermax building with seating for 200 to 250 people.   A Woolworth’s and later a department store called Tuller’s at one time occupied the ground-floor area.

Ford said construction on the facade is due to begin next week.  He estimates that renovations of the entire buiding will take about two years.  He said he has applied for a $45,000 state grant to help pay for refurbishing the facade.

Ford is the third generation of piano refurbishers in his family.  He opened Ford Piano Rebuilding in Peekskill during the early 1980′s.  Ford, who plays the piano, said he will enjoy performing in his own music hall.

“I’m no big-time musician,” he said. “I’m just a guy who loves music.”

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Keys to third-generation shop owner’s passion are all in the music
Abigail Klingbeil

Kim Papa sits near the back of Ford Piano tapping the keys on one of the shop’s shiny black instruments.  Boom.  Boom.  Bing.The untrained ear can differentiate the low booms from the high-pitched bings.   But Papa, a trained piano  tuner and four-year Ford Piano employee, can hear much more.She taps a tuning fork to hear an A note, the international concert pitch, then tunes the rest of the piano in relation to that note.  It’s 12:15 p.m. and Papa and other rescuers of neglected pianos are fast at work. The company’s ebullient owner, John Ford, is the third generation to run this piano repair and sales shop, which his Hungarian immigrant grandfather founded during the height of the late 19th-century piano boom.
Ford is now in the process of buying the three-story building at 15 South Division Street and the historic Hermax building next door, where he plans to open a music and dance hall.He will move his 9-foot Steinway Concert Grand, now at his home, into the new hall when it opens.
“Pianos are my avocation as well as my vocation,” Ford says.  “When I leave here, most times I go home and play.”
Downstairs, former cabinet maker Mike Logano takes the tuning pins out of a piano sent in for an overhaul.The sounding board, part of the piano’s innards, is exposed Logano will insert a new board and strings,  and refinish the piano’s exterior.
When Logano, a 10-year employee, is finished, the piano will be shuttled upstairs on a massive elevator lift  for tuning and final touches.
Piano overhauls can cost as much as $15,000.00.  Ford says he treats each piano the same, whether it’s owned by a Peekskill resident or a famous musician.  His roster of customers has included John Lennon, Barry Manilow, Roberta Flack and Duke Ellington.
Although the store’s expansive front windows offer people strolling by a glance at shiny concert grands and funky player pianos.  Ford says he gets little foot traffic.  “Usually, people don’t walk off the street and say ”I knew I needed a piano,’”  he says.
But they do track Ford Piano down from distant locales.  Last year, the business repaired pianos from Fairbanks,  Alaska, and Savannah, Ga.
Up-stairs again Chris is touching up the music desk of a shiny chestnut piano with brass feet.  Nearby, dozens of pianos wait their turn to be massaged back into their earlier glory.
A seven-year employee, Gonzalez is an all-purpose piano mechanic.  After being laid off, he randomly applied for a job refurbishing pianos for another company back in the summer of 1989.  “It turned out to be a summer thing that never ended,” Gonzalez says.

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North County News

By Jim Roberts

When Janos Fekete crossed the Atlantic in the late 1880′s, he couldn’t have known that more than 100 years later his grandson John Ford would play a role in redeveloping downtown Peekskill.

Today, a fourth generation of Fords (it was changed from Fekete) is now learning the craftsmanship that their Hungarian immigrant forbearer brought through the gates of Ellis Island.

John Ford, the owner of Ford Piano at 15 S. Division St., is passing on the skills his father and grandfather taught him to his sons John (far left) and Mike (middle) at the family business in the heart of Peekskill, a site that Ford moved his company to from his riverfront shop on Water street in 1999.

Ford’s move from the 5,000-square-foot space on the riverfront to his current 20,000-square-foot building was a key in the growth of the company, which now lovingly rebuilds 40 to 50 Steinway, Knabe, and Mason & Hamlin pianos every year. A rebuilding project can take three to six months, depending on the condition of the piano when it’s received at the shop.

Ford has trained his nine full-time employees in the intricate craft of rebuilding sounding boards, restringing with high-grade steel and delicately drilling out holes in the pin blocks. They use only special Sitka spruce wood grown in Alaska that produces a unique, clear sound in the pianos.

About 75 percent of the work is rebuilding for clients and the rest is refurbishments of prized pianos that Ford accumulates for resale.

The 15 S. Division St. building, which was once Kittinger’s store, has three floors. The main floor is a combination workshop and showroom, where a dozen grand pianos stand on display. Ford and his staff do intricate repair work in the back of the display area.

In the basement, heavier work involving heating, bending and drilling takes place, along with painting and refinishing. A large storage area in the back holds dozens and dozens of stacked pianos, including one once owned by famous ragtime composer W.C. Handy.

Over the years, the Ford family has rebuilt pianos for Duke Ellington, Stephen Sondheim, Barry Manilow, John Lennon and Roberta Flack.

John Ford is passionate about rebuilding pianos and proud of the heritage that taught him the skills to carry out his craft.

His grandfather could build three pianos in the time it took other workers to build two, and he went on to work as the foreman at the Steinway factory on 14th Street in Manhattan in the 1890s and eventually started the Fekete Piano Company in Manhattan in 1897.

“He was known as the best [piano] builder in New York,” Ford says of his grandfather.

His father, John Ford, carried on the tradition, creating a line of innovative piano repair tools that became the standard of the industry, in addition to building up the family’s repair business that he passed on to his son.

As John Ford carries on that tradition, he’s also working to further Peekskill’s development as a destination for visitors. A key part of that development is adding entertainment to the artists’ community that is growing here.

Over the coming year, Ford intends to keep working on his next project, a 250-seat restaurant and cabaret that he plans for a building he owns up the block at 23 S. Division St.

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