Remembering George Southwell of Main Street, the King of Band Music

The Southwell Building, an art deco masterpiece at 3941 Main and home to Harlings, takes its name from a family that made its mark on Midtown – and across the country.

Little remembered today, George Southwell was a composer of band music who played in bandstands in small towns across the country. The Kansas City Star wrote in 1920:

Kansas City has a firm which has probably done as much to encourage and build up the village ‘band concert night’ as any single agent in the United States. That is George Southwell Publishing Co., 17 East Thirty-ninth street. George Southwell’s band music is known wherever a cornet tooteth or a trombone slideth. George Southwell is dead now but his music lives. Charles Southwell is manager of the company which takes care of the business George Southwell built.

George Southwell, years ago in Wellington, Kansas, conceived of the idea of writing music for amateur band and providing lessons whereby its members might improve their abilities. He wrote “The First Grade Band Book,” lessons for beginners, and two or three tuneful but fairly easy marches and overtures, and he found they sold rapidly.  He graduated from Wellington to Kansas City in 1891, and founded the music publishing house here which can point to orders it has sent to every civilized country on the globe – and some not so civilized.

In fact, Charles Southwell told the Star that missionaries always took band instruments when they set out to “civilize the heathen,” and once the band was formed, they sent them back to Kansas City for music. Southwell also sold lots of music to England, Scotland, Ireland, China, and New Zealand, as well as France, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Mexico, and India.

The Star called the Southwell plant an unpretentious one-story brick building at the corner of Thirty-ninth and Walnut. Inside, it was filled with sheet music, and printing presses were in the rear.

The Southwell family lived just across 39^th Street at 3842 Walnut. In 1916, Mrs. Josephine Southwell sold the home to make room for a two-story brick business block. By this time, Main Street quickly transformed into one of Kansas City’s major commercial streets.

The building at 17 East 39th Street in 1940 no longer exists.

In 1930, Gail Southwell invested in the Southwell Building, described in the historic district application for the South Side landmark district as one of the most distinctive buildings on Main Street.  McKecknie and Trask architects designed this two-story art deco commercial building. “A white terra cotta banding at the roofline is broken by funnel-shaped lights of polychrome terra cotta, throwing light down on the sidewalk.”

As part of our Uncovering History Project, the Midtown KC Post is examining each block in Midtown. A set of 1940 tax assessment photos is available for many blocks.