VIDEO: Manhattan Woman Tracks Down Furniture Made by Her Ancestors in the 1850s
WEST VILLAGE — Aubrey Strobel is on a mission to preserve her family’s history, one piece of antique furniture at a time.
A descendant of Philip Strobel and Sons, a furniture company established in the 1850s, Strobel has begun collecting pieces made by her ancestors, hoping to preserve their craftsmanship and keep the family legacy alive.
The search began with a question she often asked while growing up: Did her family still own any of the furniture?
“When I would ask anyone, well, do we own any of the furniture, they would just say, no. And I’m like, well, why not?” Strobel said.
Her ancestors operated a furniture business on Elizabeth Street in what is now Manhattan’s Chinatown. The company advertised its products in newspapers and other publications, producing furniture for bars, hotels and restaurants.
Over time, the family lost its fortune, and the business eventually disappeared. But its furniture survived.
“But the furniture lives on,” Strobel said. “So that’s what I really love. And I think that anyone who has a craft or skill like my family did, I think it should be honored.”
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Strobel began posting on social media about her interest in finding pieces made by Strobel and Sons. The posts helped her connect with people who could point her toward surviving examples of the family’s work.
She now has four pieces in her West Village apartment, including a table she purchased for $50 because of its scratches. Other pieces can sell for thousands of dollars.
For Strobel, however, the furniture’s significance goes beyond its monetary value.
“These pieces have lasted hundreds of years and that’s amazing,” she said. “The craftsmanship and the care. We don’t have that anymore.”
The surviving furniture gives Strobel a tangible connection to her ancestors and the work they created more than a century ago.
She continues to receive inquiries and hopes to find a warehouse where she can store additional pieces, preserving them for future generations and other descendants of the family.
Strobel’s commitment to her family’s history is also rooted in her Catholic faith. She attends St. Joseph’s Church in Greenwich Village and sees collecting the furniture as one way to honor the generations who came before her.
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“I think honoring your family in the ways that you can is something that I take pride in, and it’s something that I believe in my Catholic faith,” she said.
As the last Strobel in New York, she feels a responsibility to carry on the family’s legacy.
Her long-term ambition is to bring Strobel and Sons back into operation, building on the craftsmanship that helped establish the company in the 19th century.
For now, she is focused on finding and preserving the pieces that remain — ensuring that the family’s history lives on through the furniture it created.