The Bisbee Unified School District (BUSD) records, circa 1885-1925, are full of interesting stories from the past. A line item in a financial record shows BUSD bought a Steinway grand piano in 1918 for $1350, equivalent to about $30,000 today. The final price BUSD paid for the piano was $1215. It is hard to imagine a school district nowadays with enough money for a Steinway Grand. This exorbitant cost speaks to the prosperity in Bisbee at the time; mining in 1918 developed at “maximum output” (Beckett, 1918).
I contacted Steinway & Sons customer service for additional information on this piano and received a swift response:
“According to our factory records, Steinway & Sons SN 186257 is a model B grand 6’ 10” in length, in mahogany dull finish (low sheen) which was completed here at the NY factory on 12/1/1917. The piano was initially sold to our dealer at the time, El Paso Piano Company, El Paso, Texas, but shipped to Bisbee, Arizona on 2/18/1918.” (Steinway & Sons Customer Service, personal communication, June 30, 2025)
BUSD purchased another piano the following year for $200, in stark contrast to the Steinway’s initial cost of $1350.
The 1917 Steinway piano would have looked similar to this:
The museum archives contain no further records of a Steinway in Bisbee. Do you remember seeing this piano in a BUSD building? Or perhaps somewhere else around town?
Let us know if you have any further information about this piano at info@bisbeemuseum.org
Below is the full page of the document for further context.
