Sigma Alpha Iota

16 Spring 2025 • sai-national.org A Visit to the Bayernhof Museum Museums By Kaitlin Smith On a hill outside Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, sits a stately gated home. Completed in 1982, what is now known as the Bayernhof Museum was inhabited by its creator, a man named Charles Brown III, until his untimely death in 1999. Charlie, as his friends called him, was an extensive collector of musical oddities and ephemera. It was his wish that his home be turned into a museum for others to enjoy his collection. And what a collection! What a home! I visited this museum after reading a short article about it. At the museum, genuine Wurlitzers playing instrument combinations crowded the room, playing piano, violin, harps, drums, trumpets, and banjos. In the room we gathered in, a player piano with four attached violins stood ready to show off beside the wet bar and overstuffed chairs. With the flip of a switch, the machine leapt into action, spinning a circular bow around and around the four violins as the piano played. The machine itself was a work of art, not just in the technical sense but in the beautiful wood carvings that adorned it. The tour was only more amazing from there. Deep plush carpet throughout helped muffle any vibrations coming from us walking around, so we did not worry about accidentally setting off any of the music boxes. Any object inside the home could be a music box, with some of the most notable being a working lamp and a functional chair. The lamp was placed innocently between two single beds in a guest bedroom and could be switched on via a small pull string. But when the top of the lamp opened up, it revealed a record player with an attached bell. The chair was placed in a convenient location, though someone from the tour needed to be coaxed into sitting on it—we were well-behaved museum guests who were hesitant to sit on anything that looked antique. Our tour guide won out, and a hidden mechanism was triggered. To our surprise, the chair proceeded to play a lovely alpine melody from the music box concealed in its seat. Each object in the home is lovingly preserved and maintained, from the tiniest bird figurine inside a music box to the largest pipe on the automatic pipe organs. Flimsy sheets of player-piano paper are kept in working order by the small team of folks who run and occasionally live in the museum. Fragile wax cylinders are kept in pristine condition The Gebroeders Decap Antwerpen The Gebroeders Decap Antwerpen

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