Turn Up the Volume
Hub City Vinyl’s new venue helps make downtown Hagerstown a music destination
By Crystal Schelle
If Hub City Vinyl has a mantra, it should be “business in the front, party in the back.” During the day, there’s a record shop in the front of the store where lovers of vinyl can peruse, but in the evenings, Thursdays through Sundays, it’s Live at Hub City Vinyl, a place where melophiles can enjoy live music.
Four years ago, husband and wife Lloyd and Sheree Thoburn lovingly renovated a former auto dealership at 28 E. Baltimore Street in Downtown Hagerstown, turning it into a record shop that they opened at the beginning of the pandemic.
Three years later, they carved out space in the expansive building to make room for Live at Hub City Vinyl, which gives musical acts a professional stage to perform and helps move Hagerstown closer to being a music destination.
A Record Shop is Born
“I bought and sold antique jukeboxes for years,” says Lloyd Thourn, who owns Coinopwarehouse. “And when we would buy the jukeboxes, we would often get boxes and boxes of the 45s from the jukebox operators. “
As he collected the 45s, which are sometimes referred to as seven-inch records, he says he was telling his wife he wanted her to come to work with him “because I missed her.”
Sheree was a former elementary school teacher who had left teaching and was at home while Lloyd ran Coinopwarehouse. For a time, Lloyd owned Game Room Garage, a vintage mall off Dual Highway in Hagerstown. There, Sheree sold records in a booth, which gave her something to do and be closer to her husband.
“It was just a couple of tables with about 14 crates,” she says. “And it grew over a period of about three years.”
Because Lloyd continued buying and selling the jukeboxes, Sheree says they continued to have an influx of the seven-inch records, But once she started pricing, she found out that there was more interest in LPs or 12-inch records.
Meanwhile, Lloyd liked to buy and sell buildings because he enjoyed “seeing them come back to life.”
The former 24,000-square-foot Massey Ford auto dealership on East Baltimore Street just blocks from the Hagerstown Arts & Entertainment District had been vacant for many years. City officials wanted to find a new owner.
“This building was available from the city essentially for free,” he explains. “We bought it for $30,000, and they gave us a $30,000 grant.”
By this time, Lloyd says he had sold the mall. With Sheree’s record booth booming, they decided to move the records to the renovated location, which they dedicated 8,000 square feet to the shop.
“I didn’t think we had enough records to fill it, but it filled really quickly,” he says.
The couple opened Hub City Vinyl in March 2020, one week before the government shutdown forced them to close their doors to the public.
Although it was devastating to a new business to shut its doors so quickly, Sheree sees it more as the pandemic gave them time to settle into the business. While they couldn’t see customers, the couple would make the daily trek from their Montgomery County home—where they still live today—to sort through the hundreds of boxes to inventory and price the records.
“It was actually a pretty peaceful two months,” she says. “We just beefed up our store inventory and waited for the shutdown to pass. It’s kind of a happy memory for me that we went for walks through the city in the afternoons, and it was very quiet. But it kept us in a routine. We were getting up, getting dressed, and going to work.”
By mid-May that same year, they hired a staff and were able to reopen. Today, Hub City Vinyl is the largest record store in the state.
A Place for Live Music
While a portion of the square footage was sectioned off for the records, roughly 16,000 square feet of the building was unoccupied and used as storage for backstock of records and some overflow for Lloyd’s business. That unused space was perfect for what was needed downtown: an independent live music venue.
The pandemic had closed many music venues across the state. Once the pandemic rules were lifted, musicians could find some bars and wineries to play, but there weren’t any venues that could support bigger acts.
“I’ve always enjoyed live music, and I thought that would be a great use for the space and a pretty good symbiotic relationship with a record store,” Lloyd says.
Sheree says they started off with Hub City Vinyl Back Porch concerts on Friday nights, and they did well, but it became a constant hassle to move crates of records around and set-up chairs to have the space for the shows. However, that didn’t sway them from their idea.
They knew, Sheree says, what the city was missing was a venue “that would be a step up from a local bar, but not so big and formal as The Maryland Theatre.”
They decided to clean out the space they wanted for the venue, reached out to an architect and a contractor, pulled permits, and built out the new section. They initially hoped to have it open by September, but like most renovations of an older building, there were some permitting issues to contend with. She says once they were solved, it went “pretty fast.”
The result was Live at Hub City Vinyl, which can hold up to 240 people. The stage has professional lighting and sound, an upgrade from the smaller-scale concerts.
Live at Hub City Vinyl’s grand opening was Nov. 10, with The High & Wides/Furnace Mountain.
Lloyd says the venue was a perfect addition, and they didn’t have to worry about parking because an easement allowed them to use the library’s parking lot. The venue has a full bar but only serves prepacked snacks.
The vision for Live at Hub City Vinyl is to bring in a variety of acts. Lloyd says he wants to bring in singer-songwriters who might not fill as many seats.
“But I’m also trying to highlight really strong, talented musicians,” he says. “We’re doing some cover bands, but ultimately, I’d like to see more original music.”
Lloyd says the customer experience is “getting to hear extremely talented artists up close and personal in a pretty intimate environment.”
As they continue to book more and more acts, Sheree says it’s been an education in running a venue.
“We enjoy attending the shows and meeting the artists,” she says. “We’re learning about the business, stage lighting, acoustic and sound engineering, security, and running a bar. It’s all new to us. We’ve never been in the live music business. We’ve never been in the bar business. It’s all a steep learning curve for us.”
But with all the necessities of running a business, Sheree is enjoying the feedback from customers who have been raving about the intimate space and decor.
“There’s a great view no matter where you sit. There’s not a bad seat in the house. They like it. It’s an intimate venue where you feel close to the performers on the stage, wherever you’re seated,” she says.
And Lloyd has even bigger plans. Even with the addition of Live at Hub City, there is still enough room left in the building to house a second music venue.
The Thoburns are looking toward the future and are excited to see how their venue will continue to attract music fans and how it will help downtown Hagerstown.
“We’re just a mom-and-pop outfit trying to do something that will help revitalize downtown Hagerstown,” Lloyd says. “I’m thrilled with how much the city’s improving, and I’ve enjoyed being part of it.”
Hub City Vinyl
28 E. Baltimore Street, Hagerstown
www.hubcityvinyl.com
Follow Hub City Vinyl on social media for information about the record
shop and Live at Hub City Vinyl or find upcoming shows on the website