RED LION, Pa. (WHTM) — A locally owned Rock n’ Roll music museum with thousands of records and memorabilia, recently made its debut in York County.
The newly unveiled Tom’s Homegrown Rock N’ Roll Museum is owned and operated by Thomas Anderton who is originally from Birmingham, England, but moved to the United States back in 2000.
According to Anderton, he has been personally collecting a wide variety of music memorabilia for the past several decades; anything from 60’s Rock N’ Roll, Jazz, Blues, Punk, and Reggae, all the way up to today’s most popular hip-hop music.
“I mean I am 51 [years old] now and I have been [collecting] since I was 12,” Anderton added.
After moving to the United States, Anderton fell in love with a woman which then led him to set up his roots here in America. In 2006, Anderton unveiled his first business called Tom’s Music Trade, which is a record store that is located at 28 North Main Street in Red Lion.
According to Anderton, Tom’s Music Trade buys, sells, and trades a wide selection of over 65,000 different albums, cassettes, and CDs, in addition to thousands of pieces of memorabilia. As Anderton’s collection continued to grow over the years, he decided that he wanted to create some type of museum space to show off his massive memorabilia collection.
“About five years ago I had an idea for a memorabilia coffee shop, but then once the pandemic hit, it shut that idea down,” Anderton explained. “I always had a stock room in my record store and I thought to myself ‘What if I did a museum back here’.”
The newly renovated section at the back of the long-time record store is now referred to as Tom’s Homegrown Rock N’ Roll Museum, which made its official debut to the rocking world of Red Lion this past Saturday, October 7.
The new museum will share the same hours of operation as Tom’s Music Trade, which are:
- Mondays – Tuesdays // 12 p.m. to 5 p.m.
- Wednesdays // 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
- Thursdays – Fridays // 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.
- Saturdays // 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- Sundays // By Appointment
“[Opening] feels incredible,” Anderton exclaimed. “This is years of collecting in the making – and the feedback that I have gotten from the community has been awesome.”
Moving forward, Anderton hopes to collect even more rare music memorabilia and even plans on sharing the stories of his various collections on his YouTube channel.
abc27 news will keep you updated as more information becomes available.
