The Bush Temple Conservatory of Music and Dramatic Art was an American conservatory of music based in Chicago with branches in Dallas and Memphis.
The Conservatory was founded in 1901 by William Lincoln Bush (1861–1941), of the Chicago-based piano manufacturer and retailer, Bush & Gerts Piano Company, a company that he co-founded as W. H. Bush and Company in 1885 with (i) his father, William H. Bush, and (ii) a noted, German-born piano-maker, John Gerts (1845–1913).
Bush Temple of Music, Chicago
Northwest corner of North Clark Street and Chicago Avenue
The building was a 6-story, early French Renaissance design by British-American Chicago architect John Edmund Oldaker Pridmore (1864–1940) featuring a buff brick and terra cotta exterior. The Building originally had a clock tower and included a showroom for the Bush and Gerts Piano Company, the Bush Temple Conservatory of Music, the Bush Temple Theatre, a museum, and offices. The building was designated a Chicago landmark in 2001.
Facing a decline in interest in music education,[1] The Bush Temple Conservatory moved to smaller quarters at 839 N. Dearborn St. in 1918. Constructed in 1878, this building was previously home to Grant's Seminary for Young Ladies (Grant Collegiate Institute)[2] and Arlington Hotel.
Bush Temple of Music, Memphis, gave its inaugural concert on January 28, 1905.
Bush Temple of Music, Dallas was located at 307 Elm Street. It was opened in 1903 and managed by William Hayes Wray (1869–1943), who served as President of Bush and Gerts of Texas for twenty-five years. The building, formerly known as the "March Building," was a four-story structure — formerly the Fakes Furniture Store — that was purchased in 1902 by Mars Nearing Baker (1854–1941) from Col. Stephen Ellis Moss (1853–1942). Its auditorium, occupying the second and third floors, had a seating capacity of 1,500. The remodeling was designed by Sanguinet & Staats.
Bush was treasurer of the Conservatory and also president of the Bush & Gerts Piano Company of Texas and the Bush Temple of Music in Dallas. Bush & Gerts had branches in Boston, Dallas, Austin, and Memphis.
The conservatory flourished since its founding and was the first music conservatory in Chicago to provide dormitories for out-of-state students. In 1924, The Bush Conservatory was one of six institutions that founded the National Association of Schools of Music and Kenneth McPherson Bradley, president of the Bush Conservatory, served as its founding president from 1924 to 1928.
The conservatory's name ceased to exist in 1932 because — months after the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and under financial duress of the ensuing Great Depression — it merged with the Chicago Conservatory College.
Chicago Temple Conservatory
Faculty, Bush Conservatory, Chicago
Faculty, Bush Conservatory, Memphis
Alumni, Bush Conservatory, Chicago