Brown & Simpson was established in Worcester, MA in 1880 by Theodore P. Brown and his partner, a gentleman by the name of Simpson. The firm was incorporated as “The Brown & Simpson Piano Company” in 1882, with their factory located at 20 May Street, Worcester. Brown & Simpson was a very small firm when compared to other industrial contemporary New England piano makers like Chickering, Emerson, etc., and their instruments were never built in substantial volume.

During the last part of the 19th Century the firm built a full line of square grand, upright, and baby grand pianos, with their square grand pianos being discontinued around 1890. Shortly after the turn of the century, Theodore P. Brown began building and marketing the “Simplex”, one of the first early push-up style piano players (forerunner of the player piano) which was advertised for $225 in 1903. The Simplex piano player was a huge success, and the Simplex name went on to become one of the largest and most popular brand of player piano mechanisms in the player piano industry.

Brown & Simpson is last shown to produce pianos in about 1910, but the firm continued to build Simplex brand pneumatic components for many major player piano manufacturers up until the Great Depression.