An Accordion Museum?

By Francis Schell
Photo by Ethan Ash

It bears the impressive title of New England Accordion Connection Museum and Company (NEACMC), and it is housed in the restored former North Canaan train station. As a museum it is remarkable. More than 400 vintage instruments are displayed, many artfully encrusted with rhinestones and mother-of-pearl, bearing in fanciful lettering the name of the maker or owner. Most were donated, and date from the 1930s and ’40s, the heyday of accordion popularity, before Elvis’ guitar stole the spotlight. Each has its history: Barbara O’Connell entertained battle-bound World War II troops with hers; Cesar Dicato serenaded Al Capone with his; famed TV host Lawrence Welk’s favorite “squeeze box” ( slang for accordion) is there.

Italo-American families had especially prized the accordion, its sound livening family gatherings. The mother of NEACMS’s founder and director, Paul Ramunni, made him learn to play as a youngster, calling the accordion “good, clean, and wholesome,” and he performed regularly. Once off to college, he shelved his instrument. Forty years later he had an epiphany: Not only did he have to get back to playing, but he needed to popularize the accordion, teach a new generation to play it, create an orphanage for unwanted instruments and a space where accordion lovers could form a community. Last year he welcomed 6,000 visitors from near and far to his museum. “Accordions are a real experience,” says the voluble Mr. Ramunni.—newenglandaccordionconnectionandmuseumcompany.com