Bush Conservatory of Music

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Bush Conservatory of Music
Bush Temple of Music 1.JPG
Original building in Chicago at N. Clark & Chicago
circa 2012
Location
Information
Type Private
Established1901 (1901)
Closed1932 (1932)
Campus Urban

The Bush Temple Conservatory of Music and Dramatic Art was an American conservatory of music based in Chicago with branches in Dallas and Memphis.

Contents

History

The Conservatory was founded in 1901 by William Lincoln Bush (1861–1941), [1] [2] of the Chicago-based piano manufacturer and retailer, Bush & Gerts Piano Company, a company that he co-founded as W. H. Bush and Company in 1885 with (i) his father, William H. Bush, and (ii) a noted, German-born piano-maker, John Gerts (1845–1913). [3]

Bush Temple of Music, Chicago
Northwest corner of North Clark Street and Chicago Avenue [4]
The building was a 6-story, early French Renaissance design by British-American Chicago architect John Edmund Oldaker Pridmore (1864–1940) featuring a buff brick and terra cotta exterior. The Building originally had a clock tower and included a showroom for the Bush and Gerts Piano Company, the Bush Temple Conservatory of Music, the Bush Temple Theatre, a museum, and offices. The building was designated a Chicago landmark in 2001.
Facing a decline in interest in music education, [5] The Bush Temple Conservatory moved to smaller quarters at 839 N. Dearborn St. in 1918. Constructed in 1878, this building was previously home to Grant's Seminary for Young Ladies (Grant Collegiate Institute) [6] and Arlington Hotel.
Bush Temple of Music, Memphis, gave its inaugural concert on January 28, 1905. [7]
Bush Temple of Music, Dallas was located at 307 Elm Street. It was opened in 1903 and managed by William Hayes Wray (1869–1943), who served as President of Bush and Gerts of Texas for twenty-five years. The building, formerly known as the "March Building," was a four-story structure — formerly the Fakes Furniture Store — that was purchased in 1902 by Mars Nearing Baker (1854–1941) from Col. Stephen Ellis Moss (1853–1942). [8] Its auditorium, occupying the second and third floors, had a seating capacity of 1,500. The remodeling was designed by Sanguinet & Staats.

Bush was treasurer of the Conservatory and also president of the Bush & Gerts Piano Company of Texas and the Bush Temple of Music in Dallas. Bush & Gerts had branches in Boston, Dallas, Austin, and Memphis. [9]

The conservatory flourished since its founding and was the first music conservatory in Chicago to provide dormitories for out-of-state students. In 1924, The Bush Conservatory was one of six institutions that founded the National Association of Schools of Music and Kenneth McPherson Bradley, president of the Bush Conservatory, served as its founding president from 1924 to 1928.

The conservatory's name ceased to exist in 1932 because — thirty-three months after the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and under financial duress of the ensuing Great Depression — it merged with [10] the Chicago Conservatory College. [11]

Presidents

Chicago Temple Conservatory

Noted faculty and alumni

Faculty, Bush Conservatory, Chicago

Faculty, Bush Conservatory, Memphis

Alumni, Bush Conservatory, Chicago

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References

  1. The National Cyclopædia of American Biography, Vol. 14, George Derby; James Terry White (eds.), James T. White & Company, New York (1910); OCLC   21265500
  2. "In Memorandum: William Lincoln Bush," Presto Music Times, No. 2303, December 1941, pg. 6
  3. Pianos and Their Makers, Vol. 2, by Alfred Dolge, Covina, California: Covina Publishing Company (1913), pg. 48; OCLC   500541714, 51374999
  4. Chicago: Its History and Its Builders: a Century of Marvelous Growth, Volume 4, by Josiah Seymour Currey, S. J. Clarke Publishing Company, Chicago (1912), pg. 589; OCLC   1851611
  5. Landmark Designation Report: Bush Temple of Music, June 7, 2000
  6. Petersen, Laurie McGovern, and Alice Sinkevitch, editors. AIA Guide to Chicago. University of Illinois Press, 2022. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5406/j.ctv2n4w5qq . Accessed 24 Sep. 2022.
  7. "Successful Inaugural Concert of the Bush Temple conservatory of Memphis," Music Trade Review, Vol. 40, No. 5, February 4, 1905, pg. 11
  8. "Big Temple of Music," Dallas Morning News, August 6, 1903, pg. 5
  9. Historical Review of Chicago and Cook County and Selected Biography, edited by Arba Nelson Waterman (1836–1917), pg. 1171; OCLC   1731014
  10. NASM, The First Forty Years; A Personal History of the National Association of Schools of Music, by Burnet Corwin Tuthill (1888–1982), National Association of Schools of Music (publisher), pg. 64 (1973); OCLC   624531
  11. "Chicago Music Schools Merged," Rockford Morning Star (Illinois), August 19, 1932, pg. 7
  12. "Foundation Head Named," The Oregonian, October 11, 1925, pg 72
  13. The Swedish Element in Illinois: Survey of the Past Seven Decades, Ernst Wilhelm Olson (ed.), the Swedish-American Biographical Association, pg. 396 (1917); OCLC   6656848
  14. "Baroness Olga von Turk Rohn". Musical Courier . 104 (9). February 27, 1932.
  15. Memphis' Own Prima Donna: The Story of Marie Greenwood (Mrs. Marie Greenwood Worden), by Waring Sherwood (born 1954) (1965); OCLC   8587301