The musical notes at the top of the building at the corner Glen Street and Hudson Avenue, where Domino’s Pizza is now located, give a hint to the structure’s history.
The Braydon and Chapman music store closed 50 years ago in January.
The downtown Glens Falls music store didn’t just sell instruments.
It offered music lessons, hosted free concerts, and was a clearing house for tickets to local concerts and shows, fulfilling the shop’s long-time slogan, “Everything in the Music Line.”
It sold sheet music, shipping piano scores for dance music and blues standards as far as Hungary.
“A postcard, literally covered on the address side with stamps, has been received by the local concern, asking for copies of the latest music, and stating that American music is in great demand in Budapest,” The Post-Star reported on Jan. 26, 1922.
It sold player piano rolls, phonograph records, and had listening booths where patrons could check out the latest recordings.
The Post-Star reported on Feb. 29, 1921 that Braydon and Chapman had 30,000 phonograph records in stock.
At one point, Braydon and Chapman had a radio repair department.
The Braydon and Chapman Accordion Band, which rehearsed at the store, performed music for dancing at many area social gatherings.
The Braydon and Chapman Accordion Band • From the Arthur S. Fisher Collection, The Folkife Center at Crandall Public Library
In 1963 and 1964, the National Federation of Music Clubs presented awards of merit to the store to recognize its show window recitals during National Music Week.
T0 founder Royal J. Braydon, music was an essential element of life.
“Characterizing music as a luxury is not only inaccurate but dangerous,” he said in 1941. “Musical instruments should be considered tools of education and of trade.”
It all started in 1911, when Braydon left the Cluett & Son piano store, where he had worked for five years, to strike out on his own as a representative of Hallet, Davis & Co., the third largest piano manufacturer in the world, at the time.
“Mr. Braydon belongs to a younger set of Glens Falls business men. He is well liked by all who know him and is a hustler,” The Post-Star reported on Oct. 16, 1911. “His rise in the piano world should be rapid.”
Braydon also sold Conway, Lexington and Strauss pianos, working out of his home for a few months until he leased space in the Knickerbocker block on Warren Street, later the site of the Rialto Theatre.
In 1915, Braydon took on Fred B. Chapman, treasurer of Finch, Pruyn & Co., as a partner, and the business was moved to the Glens Falls Y.M.C.A. building on Glen Street, where Spot Coffee Café is now located on the ground floor.
In 1919, the business moved to its long-time location at what is now the intersection of Glen Street and Hudson Avenue.
The building previously was the First National Bank.
Braydon and Chapman gave away plaster of paris souvenir figurines of the RCA “His Master’s Voice” dog at the 1919 grand opening of their new location.
“It is quite evident that Braydon and Chapman have struck a popular chord with the public, because even the most sanguine expectations of an always critical public were surpassed so far as the completeness of the establishment is concerned,” The Post-Star reported on Nov. 13, 1919.
Opening of the new store ushered in “a new epoch in the history of musical instrument and merchandising” in Glens Falls, The Post-Star reported on Nov. 12, 1919.
The business occupied all three floors of the building, accessible using an Otis elevator.
Each room was decorated in a different color scheme.
The building later was renovated and expanded.
Braydon’s wife operated the business after he died.
Ned Spain bought the business in 1965 and closed it in 1971 to focus on another musical store he operated at Colonie Center mall in the Albany area.
MAURY THOMPSON
Maury Thompson was a reporter for The Post-Star for 21 years before he retired in 2017. He now is a freelance writer and documentary film producer specializing in regional history. Thompson is collaborating with Snarky Aardvark Films to produce a documentary about Charles Evans Hughes and the Adirondacks, which is expected to release in September 2020. See the trailer here. Read his full bio here.
