August 11, 2004
Sale strikes chord with buyers
Music House Museum barn sale offers radios, record players, organs
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
It was not your average garage sale.
The Music House Museum's annual barn sale Friday and Saturday once again featured a range of unusual items in character with the organization's mission of presenting and preserving rare, antique automated instruments. Some of the thematic pieces included antique record players, tube radios, a box of spare tubes and a range of organs.
These unusual items were surrounded by the typical garage sale fare ranging from house wares to crafts to sports equipment. A fondue set, hundreds of record albums, bedding, model cars and a slide projector were some of the other offerings. Prices spanned a ten-cent hole punch to a $600 cast iron cook stove.
"We always have a nice variety of things," said Ellie Holdsworth of Kewadin, a museum volunteer. "Things have been moving out of here today quite well, we like that. Some things we've had for a couple, three years and they've decided to sell today."
Henry Morgenstein and his wife, Jacqui, browsed through the tables and shelves, eventually picking up some computer software. This was the Traverse City couple's first visit to the museum.
"We've had Europeans and Brits come and visit us and they say, 'You haven't been to the Acme Music House Museum yet?'¡" Morgenstein said. "Now we can finally tell them we've been there."
East Jordan resident Monica Olstrom is a beginning piano student and stopped by the sale to pick up some sheet music bargains.
"They're at least $5 or $6 in the store," she said gleefully, sifting through the jammed box of music books at a dollar each.
The annual Barn Sale features donated items from museum members as well as those from the community at large. The sale cleared a little over $2,000 with some bigger items still up for grabs, noted Andy Strubel, the museum's curator.
"The funds go back into operations, some go into instrument restoration but the rest is for operations, which are the hardest funds to raise," he noted.
Strubel noted that the sale has become a stop for collectors looking to snap up unusual articles at a bargain price.
"We have six or seven regular folks who are here Friday morning an hour before we open," he said. "They pick up some of the best radios and items."
The Music House Museum opened in 1982 and its extensive collection is housed in a 12,000-square-foot restored barn. Tours are available daily from May through October and on weekends in November and December.
The facility attracts between 16,000-18,000 visitors a year and is a stop on motor coach tour routes. Strubel noted that numerous visitors from Chicago and Wisconsin come to the Traverse City area specifically to tour the museum. Every year, the guest book includes people from 40 to 45 states as well as from approximately 20 foreign countries.
Despite attracting attendees from around the nation and world, the Music House Museum struggles locally for recognition.
"It is one of those things that most of Traverse City may begin to recognize the name but with the advertising they're just begin to recognize what we offer," Strubel said. "But people still think we sell pianos or give lessons."
The Music House Museum still has three electronic organs and a cast iron wood stove for sale. For more information, contact museum staff at 938-9300.