Rockley Music Center, a locally owned, family-run business on West Colfax Avenue in Lakewood for 73 years is shuttering its brick and mortar store. But the business, using a sleeker model, will continue, as will the family’s foundation, a nonprofit that supports music in education and other settings.
Over decades, Rockley sold thousands of musical instruments to thousands of musicians, including countless students. When the business was founded in 1946, by Melvin and Mildred Rockley, home appliances — washing machine and clothes dryers — were sold along with a variety of instruments.
In the 1950s, after moving to its current location, the business cast off appliances, and music became the focus. In-house studios were created where musicians gave lessons. The studios expanded in the 1980s to a separate building across a parking lot on the north side of the store. Over the years a wide variety of musical instruments — from grand pianos to flutes — were sold. At times, record players, records, cassettes and compact discs were sold. Customers ran the gamut, from punk rockers looking for electric guitars to refined piano teachers looking for sheet music for recitals.
At one point, Rockley was among the biggest retailers of sheet music in the country, with more than 20,000 titles in the store, said Tobin Rockley, grandson of the original owners and president of Rockley. Sheet music sales in the store were discontinued as the Internet emerged.
“It’s the next evolution in the business,” Tobin Rockley said of the store closure. “It’s one of the many things going on. The company has always evolved.”
Andy Cross, The Denver Post
Owner of the Rockley Music Center, Liane Rockley, right, talks with customer Emmanuel Paguio, left, at the Rockley Music Center Dec. 14, 2019. The Rockley Music Center is scheduled to close its doors after 73-years in business.Rockley will continue to sell, deliver, tune and maintain pianos, including grands and baby grands. Showings will be scheduled by appointment. The company also will sell classical string instruments, including violins. Instrument rentals will continue to be part of the business, which will be conducted online and, eventually, at a warehouse in the west metro area.
“In today’s version, you don’t need 28,000 square feet of space on Colfax,” Rockley said.
Still, moving on will be painful, despite a promising future. The building and the 1-acre property it sits on will be sold.
“It’s bittersweet. I grew up in this building,” Rockley said.
The company will have a liquidation sale from Tuesday through Dec. 21 — the last day of business at the location. Pianos, string instruments, keyboards, store fixtures and furniture will be sold.
Howard Pancoast taught piano at the Rockley center for 25 years, starting in 1980. Pancoast’s wife, Karen, also taught piano. While teaching in the 1970s, the couple were attracted by the store’s unparalleled stock and selection of sheet music.
“We needed a store to buy sheet music and send our students to to get sheet music,” he said. “Rockley was the store that had the most selection. They were the center of music in this part of town. They were the best.”
Among Pancoast’s students was a young Tobin Rockley. The two men later played together in a band. Many professional musicians, including members of the Denver Symphony Orchestra, and later the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, shopped at Rockley and used the center as a teaching, gathering and social spot.
“Rockley was very central to the music community in the this part of town,” Pancoast recalled. “There’s not anything that’s going to be able to replace that.”
Andy Cross, The Denver Post
Aslan Rockley, 19, works on a fractional sized violin at the Rockley Music Center Dec. 14, 2019.Dozens, if not hundreds, of former and current customers have been stopping into the business since news of the closure spread last month, passing along well wishes to the staff and telling stories about instruments secured and musical joy produced.
Liane Rockley, vice president of the company and Tobin’s wife, recalled a recent visitor “who got all teary, and that got me all teary. It’s a shock to the community, but they understand.”
The Rockley Family Foundation, a nonprofit that brings music education to schools and students in need, has raised and distributed about $30 million nationwide in the past 12 years, Tobin Rockley said. The foundation, through partnerships, provides music scholarships to students at colleges including the University of Northern Colorado, Metropolitan State University of Denver and Arapahoe Community College, among other institutions across the country. The Boulder Valley School District and Thompson School District have received support from the foundation.
The foundation also makes individual and educational musical instrument donations. In January 2018, the Denver Rescue Mission’s Lawrence Street Shelter received a Yamaha Clavinova digital piano.
“This piano, valued at over $2,500, will lifts spirits and provide much needed comfort and encouragement to many guests caught in a difficult environment,” the Rev. Jay Earl Krebs wrote in a thank-you note to the foundation. “What a timely blessing your gift was.”
In 2019 the foundation organized about 50 events across the country with a focus on creating musicians and keeping music alive.
“We want to thank our customers for the support over many years,” Liane Rockley said.
“It’s been a great ride,” Tobin Rockley said.
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Rockley Music Center preps for its final note at Lakewood location - The Denver Post
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