Gennett Records logo

The Starr-Gennett Music Heritage Site

Gennett was a giant of the early independent labels. Gennett provided the first opportunity from many young musicians to record in the 1920s and 1930s. From 1895 to 1925 or so a manufacture of Award-winning pianos. Gennett 78 records are the most prized by collectors.

The Gennett Recording Studio once stood on this spot in Richmond, Indiana. A division of the Starr Piano Company (established in the 1870s), Gennett Records produced phonograph records from 1916 until the Great Depression.

Some of the most important early jazz, blues, gospel & country music stars were recorded here including Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton, Charley Patton, Thomas A. Dorsey, and Gene Autry.




The logo for Richmond, Indiana's Gennett Records label, preserved on a brick wall at the site of the former Starr Piano factory. 


This is all that remains of the Gennett building today. Most of the structure was torn down in the 1960s and '70s.


This plaque is mounted on the Gennett building to the left of what appears to be the former main entrance.