The M. Sonneberg Company, of New Haven, which John H. Thompson is representing as manager, was established in 1850 by B. Sonneberg in the same building and at the same location where it is now found, so that the business has here been carried on for sixty-eight years. In the beginning B. Sonneberg handled violins, melodeons and probably sheet music, and he lived above the store which was then about thirty by seventy feet, and he had no employes. The building has since been remodeled and enlarged at various times until it now has over ten thousand square feet of floor space and four floors. In 1897 the business was changed to M. Sonneberg. The present lease of the company extends to 1928, the premises being now owned by the New Haven Orphan Asylum. This is the only site in New Haven that has been used as a piano and musical sales room since 1850 and the New Haven branch now employs nine people. In 1907 The M. Sonneburg Company sold its interest to the Sterling Company, of Derby and of Shelton, Connecticut.

The Sterling Company is one of the largest, most successful and popular piano manufacturing concerns in the United States. It is an incorporated company with Paul Schubert, as president; T. T. Brewster, as treasurer; and F. W. Beardsley, as secretary. This company employs four hundred and twenty-five men in the factory at Derby and two hundred and fifty men in the factory at Shelton, Connecticut. It manufactures the Sterling pianos and the Sterlitone piano player, also the Sterling piano player. The business was established in 1860 and was incorporated in 1864 with a capital of four hundred and twenty thousand dollars. The surplus today amounts to over five hundred thousand dollars. The factories are splendidly equipped and the capacity is eight thousand Sterling pianos per year. These are sold all over the country by responsible dealers. The house enjoys a wide popularity and its piano is regarded as one of the most salable instruments made. Wholesale and retail branches are maintained in Brooklyn and Pittsburgh and the Sterling Company now controls the M. Sonnebcrg retail stores at New Haven, Bridgeport, South Norwalk and at Yonkers, New York.