Wild Bill Durkin

"I went to Kalamazoo for a weekend and stayed for 3 years".  Three of the richest years of my life. The attached articles from 1994 give a good overview of what I was involved in regarding preserving 225 Parsons Street and the then fairly new, Heritage Guitar Co.. Articles Almost nothing had moved an inch, since the Gibson sell off.  

And the place was falling down. In chunks, some larger than others. The photo on the right, tells the tale. 
It reminded me exactly of when pigeons still flew inside The Ryman Auditorium, before it's restoration. I was equally shocked at the state of both buildings. However inside 225 Parsons Street,  almost nothing had changed.

You'd step through the solid mahogany door, with the mandolin shaped window, down a few steps and the sweet smells of sawdust and laquer vapors carried you along into Guitar Heaven. The folks there, every bit as special as the they guitars built.  

All the original Heritage staff were still at their benches. The very same folks that had not too long before, built   
The Kalamazoo Awards and Citations of archtop legend.They were turning out Golden Eagles now. And my Guitar.

Once I wound up there and experianced the great social, arts and historic preservation culture of Kalamazoo, I set about trying to tell anyone who'd listen that, "the old Gibson factory on the Northside",  deserved some preservation. Kalamazoo agreed and the process of preservation began and continues. Local Kalamazoo musicians started the critical "Save The Stack", campaign that helped ensure the dissassembly and preservation of the crumbling  smokestack with "Gibson" written in brick. That brought us to a Centennial Celebration in 2017. 

I've was priviledged to help conduct oral history interviews with former Gibson staff members, including
Julius Bellson, Ted McCarty and numerous Parsons St. staffers. I was very fortunate.