Rudolph Wurlitzer (1831-1914) immigrated to America from Germany as a twenty-four year old, and three years later in 1856 he founded The Rudolph Wurlitzer Company in Cincinnati, Ohio. Initially he imported musical instruments from his family to sell America. In 1880, the first Wurlitzer piano was built in the United States, followed by the first coin-operated electric piano in 1896.

In 1908, the Wurlitzer Company bought the DeKleist Musical Instrument Manufacturing Company in North Tonawanda, New York. Shortly thereafter, the company moved to the New York state location. In 1910, the Wurlitzer Company bought the Hope-Jones Organ Company and began to manufacture unit-orchestra pipe organs at their North Tonawanda plant. These were pipe organs equipped with bells, gongs, horns and sirens. These instruments, dubbed Mighty Wurlitzers, provided the musical background in silent movie houses all over the world.

In the late 1930s or early 1940s Wurlitzer built a new, state-of-the-art manufacturing and marketing facility in North Tonawanda. They produced the first jukebox in 1934. Over the next few years, Wurlitzer Jukeboxes became widely embraced by operators, and by the late 1930s, Wurlitzer was producing over 45,000 jukeboxes a year. The jukebox became known as the "small man's concert hall."

After World War II, Wurlitzer introduced two new instruments: the electric organ in 1947 and the electric piano in 1954. In 1956, the Wurlitzer Company opened a new plant at Corinth, Mississippi. Later, plants were opened in Holly Springs, Mississippi (1961), Logan, Utah (1970) and Hullhorst, West Germany, (1960). In 1973, Wurlitzer sold its jukebox brand to a German company and closed the North Tonawanda factory. Wurlitzer’s piano-making assets and brand were bought by the Baldwin Piano Company in 1988. Baldwin was subsequently acquired by and run as a wholly owned subsidiary of the Gibson Guitar Corporation.