Stateside

Old instruments play on in Traverse City museum, but funding cuts loom

Michigan Public | By Grace Carroll | Interlochen Public Radio

Published September 8, 2025 at 4:27 PM EDT

The image shows a massive, ornate mechanical organ called the Theofiel Mortier Dance Organ. It fills nearly the entire wall of a wooden barn-like room with a high, open-beam ceiling. The organ is decorated in cream, gold, and pastel tones, with detailed carvings, floral designs, and sculpted columns. Two large rounded towers frame each side, labeled “ANVERS” (Antwerp in French) and “YPRES”, the Belgian cities tied to its history. In the center are rows of exposed wooden organ pipes surrounded by intricate scrollwork. — The 1922 Theofiel Mortier Dance Organ, known as “Amaryllis,” is housed at the Music House Museum. Originally built for the Victoria Palace, a dance hall and café in Ypres, Belgium, it was brought to the United States in 1967 and purchased from collectors in Ohio by the museum in 1982.

Long before Spotify, people devised elaborate ways to capture their favorite melodies and keep them close at hand. The Music House is a non-profit museum outside of Traverse City focused on automated music machines, some over 200 years old. But, cuts to state and federal arts funding are jeopardizing the museum’s efforts to keep the music going.

Housed in a converted granary and dairy barn, the museum’s collection of automated music machines includes Al Capone’s phonograph, a Duo-Art reproducing piano that captures a George Gershwin performance and a five-thousand-pound Belgian dance hall organ.

Some of the instruments, like the 19th-century Swiss music boxes, are delicate and melodic. Others are cacophonous.

“I’m warning you: if you’ve got hearing aids, you may want to turn them down,” Bruce Ahlich, the Vice President of the Music House’s board of directors, said to a tour group, as a 1913 Columbia band organ — designed for amusement parks and fairgrounds — whirred to life.

Entrance to the Music House Museum in Traverse City, Michigan — Music House Museum in Traverse City, Michigan

A central tenant of the Music House’s mission is “restore not repair.” They aim to keep the instruments playing exactly as they would’ve in the past, rather than improve their function with modern technology. They also play the instruments live rather than rely on digital recordings.

“We're keeping a segment of musical history and entertainment history alive here,” Ahlich said.

But changes in federal funding are threatening that mission.

The Music House relies on grants from the Michigan Arts and Culture Council (MACC) to cover its operations costs. In 2024, it received over $30,000 from the state. But MACC has currently paused its grant programs, owing in part to changes in federal arts funding.

The image shows a glass display case at the Music House Museum containing a collection of early phonographs and gramophones. These are antique record and cylinder players with large, colorful horns used to project sound. Some sit on stands, while others rest directly on the display floor. To the right, there’s a tall wooden cabinet-style phonograph with its lid open. — Exhibit at the Music House Museum containing a collection of early phonographs and gramophones.

“We run a very tight budget, being a nonprofit,” Ahlich said. “We had been awarded a grant, which we usually would receive in January, and that has gone away. The money was not given to the state, so the state can't distribute it.”

In the absence of government support, the Music House will have to rely on donations to make up the difference.

Timothy Keaton, the museum’s Executive Director, estimates they’ll need to raise about $50,000 to cover the missing grants.

In a digital world of choice and convenience, the staff at the Music House seeks to remind people of a time when access to music was a precious commodity — something worth paying for.

This story was produced as part of the Transom Story Workshop hosted by Interlochen Public Radio in August of 2025.