Sherman Clay

Sherman, Clay & Co.

Company type	Private
Industry	Musical instruments
Founded	1853 (1853)
Defunct	2013
Headquarters	San Bruno, California , U.S.
Number of locations	approximately 60 (1980s)
Area served	North America
Products	pianos, sheet music
Parent	Sherman Clay Group

Sherman, Clay & Co. was a U.S.-based retailer specializing in musical instruments—primarily pianos—and also engaged in the publication and distribution of sheet music. Originating in San Francisco, the company was established in 1853 under the name A. A. Rosenberg. Ownership transferred to Leander Sherman and Clement Clay in 1870, and the business was formally incorporated as Sherman, Clay & Company in 1892. Over the course of the 20th century, it expanded into a nationwide retail chain, operating roughly 60 outlets by the 1980s. Its headquarters remained in San Francisco through at least the 1970s. The final retail locations were either closed or sold off by 2013.

History

File:Seattle in 1951 - Hotel Mayflower and Sherman, Clay & Co. store on 4th.jpg

Sherman, Clay & Company’s downtown Seattle store as it appeared in 1951

The origins of Sherman, Clay trace back to 1853 with the founding of the A. A. Rosenberg music store situated at Kearny and Sutter Streets in San Francisco. Leander Schutzenbach Sherman (1847–1926), initially employed as a clerk by Rosenberg, acquired the business in 1870 and later partnered with Major Clement C. Clay (1836–1905) in 1879. The firm was incorporated as Sherman, Clay & Co. in 1892, with Sherman serving as president. In the 1890s, the company imported musical instruments including pianos and also produced pianos and church organs at its own manufacturing facility. Leonard Georges (born 1850) acted as treasurer and Louis F. Geissler (born 1861) was another key figure during this period.

By 1894, Sherman, Clay operated four retail outlets: existing locations in San Francisco, Oakland, and Seattle, plus a newly opened store in Portland, Oregon. The Portland branch underwent several relocations but notably occupied space within the Woodlark Building from 1930 until 1974. The company maintained a presence in Portland until its closure or sale of that store in 2013. Clay Sherman, grandson of co-founder Leander Sherman, assumed the presidency in 1949. Ownership changed hands when Bernard Schwartz of San Francisco purchased the company in 1957.

During the 1950s, Sherman, Clay operated twenty-one stores and continued to grow steadily. By spring 1965, it had expanded to twenty-eight locations across California, Oregon, and Washington states, with its headquarters still based in San Francisco. The company extended beyond the West Coast during the following decade and by the mid-1970s had developed into a national chain with stores spanning from Manhattan to Kansas City, as well as from Seattle down to Los Angeles. In the 1980s, its network comprised approximately sixty retail outlets.

File:Woodlark Building - Portland Oregon.jpg

The Woodlark Building in Portland housed a Sherman Clay store between 1930 and 1974

21st century

By the 2010s, Sherman, Clay reported having sold in excess of two million musical instruments. Their inventory included both new and pre-owned pianos produced by manufacturers such as Steinway & Sons—which also offered subcontracted models under the Boston and Essex brands—alongside instruments from the Yamaha Corporation and the Henry F. Miller Piano Company.

In 2013, Sherman Clay declared it would be withdrawing from retail operations in California, its historic base, effective May 31, 2013, concluding 142 years of business there. Of the four remaining California outlets at that point, the San Francisco and Walnut Creek locations were acquired by Steinway and Sons to continue functioning as piano dealerships. Conversely, the stores in Roseville and San Bruno were slated for closure. At that time, Sherman Clay maintained only two other stores outside California—in Seattle and Houston—both of which ceased operations later in 2013: the Houston branch around June and the Seattle store in September. The Seattle location represented the final retail presence of the company. Since the 1970s, Sherman Clay had been under the ownership of Sherman Clay Group, a multifaceted enterprise engaged in real estate management and consumer finance.

To recognize the company's longstanding contribution, San Francisco’s chief of protocol, Charlotte Mailliard Shultz, proclaimed May 7, 2013, as Sherman Clay Day in the city.

Key personnel

General management

• Al Jacobs (1903–1985), recognized songwriter
• C.M. "Sandy" Balcom and Leroy "Pop" Vaughan, former employees of Sherman, Clay & Co. in Seattle, later established Balcom and Vaughan, a Seattle-based pipe organ manufacturing firm
• Richard Powers served as general manager of Sherman, Clay's New York branch until 1925, before transitioning into radio
• Bernie Pollack succeeded Richard Powers as the New York office's general manager in 1925

Sheet music division

• Elizabeth Octavia Garrett (née Stone), who was the mother of actress Betty Garrett (1919–2011), oversaw the sheet music department at Sherman Clay in Seattle

Professional team

• Rose Fischer (born circa 1878) departed from Broadway Music’s New York office in 1922 to join the professional department at Sherman, Clay & Co.’s New York location. She was recruited by Richard Powers, then general manager of the New York office. In 1998, she married William C. Spiegel (born circa 1875) in San Francisco

Notable published compositions and creators

Selected compositions

• "Li'l Liza Jane" (1916)
• "Rose Room" (1917)
• "Whispering" (1920)
• "My Little Grass Shack in Kealakekua, Hawaii" (1933)
• "Close Your Eyes" (1933)

Composers and lyricists

• Wallie Herzer (1885–1961), composer and lyricist
• Harry D. Kerr (1880–1957), composer and lyricist
• Vincent Rose (1880–1944), composer
• Nacio Herb Brown (1896–1964), composer
• Johnny Noble (1892–1944), composer
• Bernice Petkere (1901–2000), composer and lyricist

Distinguished sheet music illustrators and engravers

• Leland Stanford Morgan (1886–1981)

Visuals

• Selected sheet music cover illustrators
• Wesley Raymond De Lappe (1887–1952)
  Wesley Raymond
  De Lappe
  (1887–1952)
• Illustrator: Unknown
  Illustrator: Unknown
• Wesley Raymond De Lappe (1887–1952)
  Wesley Raymond
  De Lappe
  (1887–1952)
• Wesley Raymond De Lappe (1887–1952)
  Wesley Raymond
  De Lappe
  (1887–1952)
• Illustrator: Unknown
  Illustrator: Unknown
• Porter Murdock Griffith (1889–1969)
  Porter Murdock Griffith
  (1889–1969)

Oakland flagship store, California (1947)

File:Architect and engineer (1947) (14762179781).jpg

File:Architect and engineer (1947) (14578719159).jpg

File:Architect and engineer (1947) (14578727048).jpg

Designed by architect William Wurster, constructed in Oakland, California in 1947

References

Archival materials

University of Washington Libraries, Digital Collections

• Photograph: "Hinkley Block, Seattle", (approximately 1911), Museum of History and Industry, Seattle
• Photograph: "Totem pole installation at Westlake Mall, Seattle, 1960" Museum of History and Industry, Seattle
• Photograph: "Company representative with television, phonograph, and radio, circa 1947" Museum of History and Industry, Seattle

San Francisco Public Library, San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection

• Photograph: "Sherman, Clay & Co., San Francisco"

Citations

External links

• Interview with former President Don Ravitch NAMM Oral History Library, April 7, 2005
• Interview with Chairman Eric Schwartz NAMM Oral History Library, May 14, 2008