Music House Museum

Music House Museum sign

The Music House Museum has a collection of restored antique musical instruments, early radios, and recordings. It is housed in a 1909 dairy barn and a 1905 granary farmhouse, located between the communities of Acme and Williamsburg in Grand Traverse County of Northern Michigan. It was established in 1983 and is a result of a hobby by an architect and a mechanical engineer.

Background history

David Stiffler (an architect) and Dean Junker (a mechanical engineer) started a hobby in the 1970s of collecting and restoring antique musical instruments. At that time they were using the old Stiffler family farm between the communities of Acme and Williamsburg near Traverse City, Michigan. In 1979 they decided to create a formal display to show off their hobby to friends and others. They formed D and D Enterprises as a venture for the collecting, restoring and displaying of antique musical instruments. They started work to remodel the Stiffler 1909 dairy barn and 1905 granary farmhouse into a presentation area for the musical instruments.[1][2][3] The first display of historical restored mechanical musical instruments was in the granary farmhouse in the summer of 1983.[4] Work was then started in remodeling the 12,000 square-foot white dairy barn in the fall of 1983.[5] It eventually opened in May 1984 to the general public as Music House Museum, a non-profit organization. The original white barn is the main collection of the restored antique musical instruments. The granary is the museum’s main entrance and has old radios. A covered walkway was built in 1981 between the farm’s granary entrance to the barn that holds the collections. The granary originally was where the farm’s workers lived and slept. They called the granary the old farmhouse, from which the music museum received its "house" name.[1][6]

Current museum

The museum has guided tours and self-guided tours displaying the history and craftsmanship of the instrument collection. It has some twenty thousand tourists per year and has received about a half million visitors from its beginning. The museum has grown over the years and displays musical items from the 1780s to the 1950s.[7] It has early one-of-a-kind restored automated musical instruments, player pianos, music boxes, keyboard instruments, a mechanical violin, antique radios, vinyl phonograph records, and printed music.[8][9] From time to time there are demonstrations of the restored musical instruments.[10]

Examples of the restored instruments in 19th-century nostalgic settings are the organ from Detroit's defunct Cinderella Theatre, a 1924 Wurlitzer Theatre organ, and a 97-key Amaryllis Mortier dance organ that is thirty feet wide and eighteen feet high.[3]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "The Music House Museum". Music House Museum. 2017. Retrieved January 3, 2018. The former dairy barn now houses the main collections. The granary serves as the Museum’s main entrance.
  2. ↑ Skiba, Walter (August 14, 2004). "One-Tank Trip: Music House Museum". NWI Times. The museum property originally consisted of a farmhouse built in 1904 and dairy barn built in 1909. The buildings were connected in 1981 and the Music House opened its doors in 1983.
  3. 1 2 "Welcome to the Music House Museum". The Music House Museum. 2017. Retrieved January 3, 2018. From 1979 to 1982 they worked to refurbish the 1909 barn and the 1905 granary into a turn-of-the century showcase...
  4. ↑ Maloney 2003, p. 512.
  5. ↑ "Music House Museum, Traverse City, Michigan, a Showcase of Some of the Finest and Rarest Automated Musical Instruments". City-Data.com. 2017. Retrieved January 3, 2018. Among the rural cherry orchards of Acme, Michigan, eight miles north of Traverse City, can be found a renovated 12,000-square-foot white barn and historical attraction known as the Music House Museum.
  6. ↑ Newkirk, Dana (May 19, 2015). "This barn holds one of the country's largest collection of restored instruments". Destination Strange. Roadtrippers. Retrieved January 3, 2018.
  7. ↑ Jacobs, Susan (March 31, 2015). "Singing the Many Praises of Michigan". Smart Meetings. Retrieved January 3, 2018. Music House Museum, housed in a charming, 100-year-old dairy barn, showcases a collection of rare instruments and music boxes from the late 18th century to 1950.
  8. ↑ AASLH 2002, p. 392.
  9. ↑ Cantor 2005, p. 56.
  10. ↑ Counts 2011, p. 79.

Sources

  • AASLH (2002). Historical Organizations in U. S. Rowman Altamira. ISBN 978-0-7591-0002-2.
  • Cantor, George (2005). Explore Michigan. University of Michigan Press. ISBN 0-472-03091-4.
  • Counts, Jeff (6 June 2011). Explorer's Guide Michigan. Countryman Press. ISBN 978-1-58157-876-8.
  • Maloney, David Jr. (2003). Maloney's Antiques. Krause Publications. ISBN 0-87349-732-5.

Coordinates: 44°47′33″N 85°29′19″W / 44.79250°N 85.48866°W / 44.79250; -85.48866

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