Daynes Music

Daynes Music, located in Midvale, Utah, is the oldest retail business and continuously operated family business in Utah. It is the 76th oldest family-owned business in the country. What began as a small music and jewelry store in a log building in 1862, has grown to be a fourth-generation family business.

Founder John Daynes was a native of England, but he and his wife Eliza Miller Daynes and their family converted to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) and left England in 1862 to travel to the Utah Territory. They brought several instruments with them, including a melodeon, which their 11-year-old son, Joseph J. Daynes, played very well. Joseph grew to be the first organist for the Mormon Tabernacle Choir at age 16, a position he held for 33 years.

John Daynes was a watchmaker by trade, but music was his hobby and passion, and he was able to make it his business in Salt Lake City when he recognized the craving that Mormon pioneers had for music. They had been largely unable to bring instruments with them across the Great Plains.

John convinced Steinway & Sons to ship him one of their pianos in 1873. This piano had to be shipped to San Francisco and then carted over Donner Pass through the Sierra Nevada. This purchase, as well as subsequent purchases from Steinway, makes Daynes Music the oldest Steinway dealership in the United States and the second-oldest music store in the United States.

John Daynes ran his business until 1902, when he turned it over to his son Royal W. Daynes. Royal ran the business for 49 years until his son Gerald Daynes became its president in 1950. Current president, Skip Daynes, became president in 1967, and turned Daynes Music from the brink of bankruptcy to a successful business.

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