Local music history — Pack your picollo

A 19th century traveling salesman could fit a piccolo in his satchel.

But if he wanted a fellow commercial traveler to provide keyboard accompaniment, it was important to lodge at a hotel with a piano.

Piccolo soloist A. A. Butterfield of Boston and pianist George Fox of Troy, a salesman for the Mutual Life Insurance Co., struck up an impromptu concert in the parlor at The Rockwell House Hotel on Glen Street in downtown Glens Falls the afternoon of June 27, 1889.

Traveling salesmen T.F. Peckham of Worchester, Mass., A.E. Currier of Pittsburgh, and G. Steinhardt of New York City joined in on vocals.

“The music, both instrumental and vocal, was excellent and was enjoyed by other guests who had time to linger and hear it,” The Morning Star reported on June 28. “Last evening another musical treat was enjoyed.”

The hotel, located at what is now the Hudson Avenue entrance to the Centennial Circle roundabout, regularly hosted open-air concerts on its pizazza.

A July 17, 1889 concert at the hotel was expected to be even more noteworthy than usual.

“Lovers of music are looking forward with pleasant anticipation to the orchestral concert to be given on Rockwell House piazza tomorrow night,” The Morning Star reported on July 16. “There will be several out-of-town musicians of acknowledged talent in the orchestra.”

In other music news collected from historic newspaper of the region:

• Even a former U.S. president needed to book early to enjoy the music of Frederick Barclay, “the well-known tenor from Argyle.”

Professor Mietzke was hastily organizing two conerts at the last minute to present at The Stevens House at Upper Saranac, where Grover Cleveland and his wife were set to stay for “a sojourn of a week or so,” The Morning Star reported on Aug. 12, 1889.

Mietzke invited Barclay to perform, but the vocalist had other previoisly scheduled appearances.

• The St. Mary’s Cornet Band was in recruitment mode.

“Efforts are being made to induce G.W. Atsell of Richfield Springs, a very fine clarinet performer, to come here and join the band. If employment can be obtained for him, he will come here,” The Morning Star of Glens Falls reported on July 9, 1889.

“He ought to be a lusty player, as he is six-feet-two-inches in height, and weighs one hundred and ninety pounds.”

Apparently, Atsell received a better offer from some other community, as there appears to be no further local news reports about the recruitment effort.

• Preachers were not the only circuit riders in the 19th century.

“Mr. Geo. N. Collier, a piano tuner and regulator of twenty-five years’ experience, is in town on his semi-annual tour,” The Commercial Advertiser of Sandy Hill, now Hudson Falls, reported on Aug. 4, 1880. “Parties desiring his services can leave word at this office or at the Coffey House before tomorrow night. Mr. C. is a first-class tuner and we would recommend him to all.”

• On July 12, 1889, The Morning Star reported that the Indian Lake Methodist Church installed a new organ.

Quotable:

• “Glens Falls is becoming a musical town.” — The Morning Star, Aug. 9, 1889

Click here to read my most recent previous local music history post.