Before the Ellsworth Street restaurants, south Silver Spring galleries and Birchmere rumors, there was Dale Music. The Georgia Avenue music shop has weathered hard times and pressure from development. Now it faces a different foe.
The scent inside the store is strangely comforting — the bouquet of aging sheet music, yellow and crisp like autumn leaves. It billows from metal file cabinets and folders on back-room shelves.
It’s the smell of certainty, of something old but everlasting, and it permeates the Dale Music shop.
The family-owned store has been on Georgia Avenue between Bonifant and Ripley streets since 1949, says co-owner Joy Doumas. Since then, the shop has endured urban decay and downtown Silver Spring’s resurrection. Now, it’s stuck in the middle.
“I’m very happy that [downtown Silver Spring] is bubbling, but [shoppers] don’t venture south of Bonifant Street,” Doumas tells The Penguin. “If we were just a few blocks up, we’d do more business.”
While Doumas supports development, she worries that higher commercial rents could drive local retailers out of the neighborhood. According to a 2005 University of Maryland study, rising rents are the most prevalent problem for Silver Spring’s small businesses.
“If we didn’t own the property, our rent would have tripled,” Doumas says.
New development also hasn’t contributed much to the area’s quality of life, says store manager Ed Hardy. A concentration of restaurants in downtown Silver Spring leaves little room for other retail and nightlife, he argues.
“If someone wants to listen to [live] music, there’s no place to go,” Hardy says.
But the greatest threat to Dale Music’s business doesn’t arrive at the blow of a wrecking ball, but by the click of a mouse. The deluge of free sheet music on the Internet is causing “extensive damage” to business, Doumas admits.
“You can’t compete with the Internet,” says Hardy.
Despite the competition — both virtual and brick-and-mortar — Doumas says there are no immediate plans to relocate or fold the business.
“We’re staying here as long as we can,” Doumas declares.
Photo by Jennifer Deseo for The Silver Spring Penguin.
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Dale Music is a treasure. They carry things you can’t find elsewhere and are very, very nice.
Are we really supposed to feel bad for a business that doesn’t seem to have upgraded its model in 58 years? With the current revitalization, they’d probably make more selling the building than they would make in profit over the next decade anyway.
It’s great that an old place like Dale survives but the manager is wrong about the live music scene. The Quarry House is booking acts several nights a week right across the street from him, Mayorga often has music, Austin Grill books most nights as does McGinty’s. Vicino’s does jazz on Monday night’s too. Granted not all of these places advertise it well, but there is a live music scene in Silver Spring and the manager of a music store should be aware of that and not just throw out that kind of comment.