A Hole in the Wall on a One-Way Side Street
The search for a store location led to a fifteen wide by thirty-foot deep vacant storefront at 27 Langdon Street in downtown Montpelier. It was a perfect space for what we wanted to do at a rent we could afford. The fact that Langdon Street was a dark, narrow, practically forgotten alleyway of dowdy offices, a print shop and a paint store did not dissuade us. Our enthusiasm for realizing our vision blinded us to the reality of the moment...
We could not get a loan from our new landlord, which then, as now, happens to be a bank, because they were not confident we would be able to make a successful go of it in this location (was it the location or was it their suspicion that a couple of long hair idealists might not have what it takes to be successful capitalists?)
We pooled our collective liquid resources and came up with something around $3,000, an impossibly pathetic amount with which to start a business but this is what we had so we did it anyway.
I was working at Sprague Electric Company in Barre making electronic capacitors and earning pretty good money for the time (this was a union job and I had become a member of the United Electrical Workers of America.)
George was married to Joyce who worked in state government and was earning a fairly decent income for the time.
Our plan was for George to open in the morning and operate the store for most of the day or at least until 3:30pm when I got there after working a 7am to 3pm shift at Sprague Electric. It was a plan too unrealistically unworkable to be true but we did it anyway. Sleep deprivation would become a way of life.
We rented the space at the beginning of January, 1973 and went to work in there, day and night, renovating, building record racks, painting, planning, perspiring…just the two of us doing all of those things that needed to be done to open for business which finally happened on January 23, 1973.
Buch Spieler was officially born.
(CONTINUED) (written by Fred Wilber, October 1999)
eMail
Buch Spieler Music
27 Langdon Street
Montpelier, Vermont 05602
Telephone 802.229.0449
Fax 802.229.5047
sales@bsmusic.com
Normal Business Hours
Monday-Friday 10am-6pm
Saturday 10am-5pm
Sunday 11am-4pm