For those who did not go to the reunion and for those that did not leave the Holiday Inn the following pages are for you. You missed a bit of Americana, a classic small town in the heartland of our country.
Originally widely known for its farm equipment manufacturing, then for its piano company and then for its support of American jazz musicians, Richmond has gone from boom to bust and is well on its way back as a thriving community of about 39,000 people. And it is the County Seat of Wayne County, Indiana with its own minor league baseball team, the Richmond Roosters.
While early inventors from Richmond produced roller skates and motion picture equipment, national recognition of Richmond first came as a result of the Starr Piano Company that made, you guessed it, pianos. And don't ask me where Bill Starr fits into the Starr Piano Company family tree. His mother tried to explain it to me but somewhere between the front porch and the tonic water I got lost.
When the piano company diversified into recording on the new fangled wax record disks, Richmond became internationally famous. The Gennett Recording Studios were a division of Starr Pianos and became the studio of choice for many well know artists. Black musicians in particular would slip down from Chicago and cut records of their new American music, JAZZ. Artists that made recordings on the Gennett label included Jelly Roll Morton in 1923, King Oliver, Louis Armstrong, Lil Hardin and Honore Dutrey. In 1924, Bix Beiderbeck, Tommy Dorsey, Hoagy Carmichael (where he played the first version of the soon to be famous "Stardust"), Earl Hines and Wingy Manone (composer of "In The Mood"). Although born in Richmond, Glenn Miller never made a hit on a Gennett record. The city remembers him however; there is a large public park in Richmond named in his honor. The park boasts hot springs, an 18 hole golf course and a large, well tended, rose garden. Richmond does call itself the City of the Roses and is proud of its display.
By 1929 Gannett Record sales were over $70 million but with the Great Depression they dropped to less than $6 million in 1931. Soon thereafter Gennett Records went out of business and rights to the Gannett label were bought by DECCA. Starr pianos continued to be made in Richmond until the early 1950s when that plant also closed. Today only a few bricks, a tall chimney and a partial wall remain to mark the location of the once large and busy factory. Deep in the Whitewater River Gorge, accessible only by a dirt road little better than a trail, the factory ruins may, someday, be the site of a jazz museum dedicated to the wonderful sounds that once were heard here.
Today Richmond serves as the commercial and cultural center for the surrounding farm communities. With well developed public parks, an outstanding school system and a uptown that is starting to bloom again, Richmond is the kind of place one could visit for a day and end up staying a year. If you missed it, shame on you. And if you missed dinner at the OLDE RICHMOND INN double shame on you.