(b Leipzig, 22 Dec 1848; d Milan, 5 Jan 1922). American manufacturer of piano felts and soundboards and dealer in piano supplies. He began his career as an apprentice in the piano factory of A. Dolge & Co. in Leipzig, emigrating to the USA in 1866. From 1867 to 1869 he worked in the New Haven, Connecticut, shop of Frederick Mathushek (who had worked with J.H. Pape in Paris). He subsequently left to become an importer of piano supplies (skins for piano hammers and Poehlmann’s music wire), and by 1871, in Brooklyn, he was manufacturing hammer felts which in 1873 won a first prize at the Vienna Exhibition. The demand for good-quality felts led him to establish in 1874 a larger manufacturing concern in the Adirondack village of Brockett’s Bridge. With ample water power and a large timber supply for the making of soundboards, Dolge transformed the town (renamed Dolgeville in 1887) into a busy industrial community, which later also became the centre of Zimmermann autoharp manufacture. Dolge’s felts and soundboards were used by most leading piano makers. Throughout his career, he maintained a large piano supply-house at 122 East 13th Street, New York.
After attempting to build a railway connection for the transport of his products, Dolge suffered financial disaster in 1898 and left Dolgeville to begin a new life in southern California, first as an orange rancher and wine producer, later as a felt maker at the Alfred Dolge Felt Co. (at Dolgeville, California). He was also the author of Pianos and their Makers, which gives valuable information about early 20th-century developments in American piano making, including descriptions of Dolge’s own improvements in machines for applying felt to hammers and in the quality of the felt.
D. Spillane: History of the American Pianoforte (New York, 1890/R), 316ff
A. Dolge: Pianos and their Makers, i (Covina, CA, 1911–13/R); ii (Covina, 1913/R)
J.C. Freund: ‘An Inspiring Memorial Tribute to Alfred Dolge’, Music Trades (11 Feb 1922)
CYNTHIA ADAMS HOOVER