Seattle Now & Then: Tacoma’s Ted Brown Music, 1935
Clay Eals
(Click and click again to enlarge photos)
THEN: Workers unload upright Philco radios in 1935, in back of newly opened Ted Brown Music, 1121 Broadway in downtown Tacoma, where it operated until 2001. From 1931 to 1934, the firm operated four blocks north at 755-757 Broadway. (Courtesy Ted Brown Music)NOW: Matching the 1935 photo today with a Ted Brown Music van at the same location are family owners, from left, Whitney Grisaffi and her sons, Garrison and Carson Grisaffi. (Clay Eals)
Published in The Seattle Times online on May 14, 2026
and in Pacific NW Magazine of the printed Times on May 17, 2026
For 95 years, one family has played the tune at Ted Brown Music
By Clay Eals
Glenn Miller (The Vintage News)
Joining my school’s new concert band made me a fortunate fifth-grader in 1961. Which instrument would I learn? My mom loved the upbeat big-band sound of Glenn Miller, so the choice was easy: a brassy slide trombone. At the Sherman Clay music store in downtown Seattle, a student horn was a big purchase at $175, but my commitment endured for decades.
Ted Brown, 1931. (Courtesy Ted Brown Music)
Thirty miles south in Tacoma, Ted Brown (1901-1971) made his own musical commitment during the Depression. His decision has enveloped his family for an astounding 95 years — and counting.
A clarinetist, Brown had worked for Sherman Clay in Tacoma, Spokane and Portland for eight years when, at age 30 in 1931, the West Coast retailer asked him to close its troubled downtown Tacoma branch. Instead, he lured investors and, for $50,000, bought it and began a brand.
“He was a natural salesperson — a connector in a business that works so much on relationships,” says Brown’s granddaughter Whitney Grisaffi, who runs South Tacoma-based Ted Brown Music, with 150 employees at stores in six Washington cities.
Warren Brown, late 1960s. (Courtesy Ted Brown Music)
The company’s latter-day logo, designed by Grisaffi’s dad, Warren Brown (1934-2004), tells the founder’s story in miniature: a French horn whose bell forms a “T” and whose swirl suggests a “b.”
But what exactly is a music store? Over time, the definition has twisted more than the tubing of a tuba.
Early sales products were pianos and sheet music. Close behind came radios, phonographs, records and televisions. After those items spun to specialized stores, electronics emerged: guitars, synthesizers, digital keyboards, public-address systems and home studios.
NOW: The Ted Brown Music Outreach nonprofit recently purchased the former Clinton’s Music House building, complete with rooftop piano, at 2301 Tacoma Ave. S., using it for rehearsal rooms and music-therapy sessions. (Clay Eals)
Dominant through it all has been music education, providing band and orchestra instruments and lessons for students. Since 2007, that has included a nonprofit for music therapy and used instrument giveaways.
NOW: Outside the 25-year-old, 35,000-square foot South Tacoma headquarters of Ted Brown Music at 6228 Tacoma Mall Blvd., are family owners, from left, Garrison, Whitney and Carson Grisaffi. Branches operate in Richland (opened in 1987), Yakima (1992), Silverdale (1996), Puyallup (2008) and Seattle’s University District (2014). To mark its 95th anniversary, on June 27 the firm will host parties at each site — with live music, of course! (Clay Eals)
“For us to enjoy music as humans, somebody’s got to learn how to play an instrument in the first place,” Grisaffi notes. “In the United States, that takes place in the schools. We’re so lucky because that’s a unique situation worldwide. You start on an instrument in school and figure out, ‘Wow, this is me.’ All the retail, whether you walk into the store or find us online, is supporting those people once they’ve become musicians.”
Supporting Grisaffi is the fourth generation, her adult sons Garrison and Carson Grisaffi. Both aim to sustain the enterprise. In Garrison’s two tots is the glimmer of Generation Five.
Ted Brown Music 95th anniversary logo.
“I get to wake up every day and work in the music industry,” Garrison says. “I can help run the legacy, I can help people make music, and who the heck doesn’t listen to music?”
NOW: A panoramic interior view of Ted Brown Music’s 32,000-square-foot South Tacoma headquarters reveals an array of musical products and services. (Clay Eals)
WEB EXTRAS
Big thanks to Whitney, Garrison and Carson Grisaffi and David Meredithfor their invaluable help with this installment!
To see Clay Eals‘ 360-degree video of the “Now” prospect and compare it with the “Then” photos while hearing this column read aloud by Clay, check out our Seattle Now & Then 360 version of the column.
NOW: The first home of Ted Brown Music, in 1931-1934, still stands at 755-757 Broadway in downtown Tacoma’s Antiques Row. (Clay Eals)THEN: In late 1934, Ted Brown Music stands ready to open at 1121 Broadway. Descendants think Brown may be the blurry figure at lower right. Built in 1906 and 1913, the decorative building is on the Tacoma Register of Historic Places. (Courtesy Ted Brown Music)NOW: In front of the former 66-year downtown Tacoma location of Ted Brown Music are, from left, family owners Whitney, Garrison and Carson Grisaffi. The firm now has six sites and formerly operated at Tacoma Mall (1968-1989) and in Spokane (2001-2004). (Clay Eals)THEN: In 1964 in downtown Tacoma, Ted Brown Music sports a Hohner harmonica-themed, summer-travel window display, including promo materials for the Beatles, “Hootenanny Time,” entertainer Steve Allen playing a piano-style melodica and the 1963 feature film “The Hook” starring Kirk Douglas. (Richards Studio, courtesy Ted Brown Music)THEN: In 1961, the record section of Ted Brown Music in downtown Tacoma displays an LP titled “Do the Twist! With Ray Charles.” (Courtesy Ted Brown Music)THEN: A 1938 window display for “No Squat, No Stoop, No Squint” Philco upright radios fills the front window of Ted Brown Music in downtown Tacoma. (Courtesy Ted Brown Music)THEN: Ted Brown stands at his store circa 1956. The window display features guitars, a portable record player, transistor radio, bongo drums and the Chico Arnez book “Bongo Made Easy.” (Richards Studio, courtesy Ted Brown Music)THEN: A revamped exterior showcases Ted Brown Music’s new logo, created by Brown’s son Warren Brown, in downtown Tacoma in the mid-1960s. (Courtesy Ted Brown Music)THEN: Ted Brown Music is shown in 1970 at Tacoma Mall, where the branch operated from 1968 to 1989. (Courtesy Ted Brown Music)March 25, 1931, Tacoma News Tribune, p7.March 26, 1931, Tacoma Daily Ledger, p4.April 2, 1931, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, p18.May 15, 1931, Tacoma News Tribune, p14.May 22, 1932, Seattle Times, p31.Dec. 30, 1934, Tacoma Daily Ledger, p2.April 12, 1940, Tacoma Times, p9.April 10, 1941, Tacoma News Tribune, p5.April 10, 1941, Tacoma Times, p6.April 6, 1947, Seattle Times, p38.Aug. 28, 1955, Seattle Times, p16.Jan. 30, 1963, Seattle Times, p23.Feb. 12, 1965, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, p22.Dec. 17, 1965, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, p58.June 30, 1969, Seattle Times, p42.Sept. 27, 1971, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, p36.Sept. 30, 1971, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, p65.Jan. 12, 1973, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, p47.Feb. 28, 1974, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, p42.March 15, 1974, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, p63 .April 29, 1981, Seattle Times, p90.Oct. 23, 2000, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, p35.Dec. 14, 2004, Tacoma News Tribune, p9.Aug. 5, 2014, Tacoma News Tribune, pA9.June 7, 2019, Tacoma News Tribune, pA7.Feb. 12, 2025, Tacoma News Tribune, pA2.March 7, 2025, Tacoma News Tribune, p85.Aug. 24, 2025, Tacoma News Tribune, pA2.
