The End of Manhattan's Music Row

Patrick McGeehan reports on the final, long-awaited death of Music Row in Manhattan. The last music store located on the segment of West 48th Street, adjacent to Times Square, shuttered its doors in December.

According to McGeehan, "the music finally died there in December when the last holdout, Alex Carozza, packed up his accordion store and 50 years of memories and moved off the block." In earlier decades, the block was "lined with shops that sold and repaired guitars, drums, keyboards and other instruments," such as "Manny’s and Rudy’s and New York Woodwind and Brass, Frank Wolf Drummers Supplies and We Buy Guitars…"

The article notes that the first to predict the complete demise of Music Row was Chrles Ponte, who closed his shop in 1968. His prediction that "every last one" of the shops would close came true—albeit some 46 years later. McGehee goes into more detail about the specific circumstances surrounding the closure or relocation of many of the stores formerly located on Music Row.