Location: 311 4th Ave E
Local register; Popular culture
 Rabeck Music Store (in next block to the east), Piano Trade Magazine, 1915 |
 Rabeck Music Store building today (2014), photo by Deb Ross |
Ammon T. Rabeck arrived in Olympia in 1888, and after working in the mills for several years, opened up a small organ store at the current site of the Ward Building next door. That location later became the home of a rival, the Taylor Music Store. Rabeck moved at least twice more, always on Fourth Avenue, and expanded his business to include the first dealership for phonographs, as well as sheet music, some of his own composition. The drawing at above left shows the extent of his business in 1916, which was then located between Jefferson and Adams Streets; the Fourth Avenue trolley line can be seen approaching from the west. He then moved a block to the west. The current building, which appears much smaller than the 1916 building, was erected in 1927. It is a modest masonry structure with attractive crenelated parapet. The business was sold to Yenney’s in the 1940s, and this building has had several occupants since then. The building is on the local register.
Additional resources:
Fourth Avenue looking east, with Rabeck Store at right foreground, from Moody Collection
For more information on A.T. Rabeck (including a brief biography from the 1916 Piano Trade Magazine), see the Residents section of this website
Copyright © 2022 Deborah Ross