After nearly five decades serving musicians, students and families from the same Dale Boulevard location, Dale City Music is preparing to close its doors, ending a 48-year run as a locally owned music store and community resource, according to multiple sources.
The store, at 4367 Dale Blvd., is slated to close July 31. An employee, Adren Harris, told InsideNoVa the owners decided to shut down amid rising commercial rents and concerns about taking on unsustainable debt.
“Our last day of normal business will be this Friday,” Harris said.
Harris said the store’s owners determined closing was preferable to continuing under increasingly difficult financial conditions.
“Presumably due to future rent-based issues,” Harris said when asked the reason for the closure, “given that rent in the area has gone up ever since the developers changed over the last couple of years.”
He said there are no plans to relocate the business.
“The owners have decided that they would rather just end the business while they are more likely to be able to recover than risk going into debt in the future,” Harris said.
The current owner is Stacy Armistead, who said in an April Facebook post she was carrying on a third-generation music store started by her father, grandfather and uncle.
The closure brings an end to a business that has been part of Dale City’s commercial landscape since 1978. According to Dale City Music’s website, the business has been family-owned and operated from the same location since it opened.
The business’ inventory included guitars, band and orchestra instruments, drums and percussion equipment, keyboards, professional audio equipment, strings, accessories, sheet music, instructional materials and used instruments and gear.
The store also offered one-on-one instruction in a variety of instruments and music disciplines. Its website lists lessons in piano, guitar, bass guitar, drums, percussion, mandolin, ukulele, trumpet, clarinet, alto saxophone, flute, violin and viola, along with music theory, improvisation and music production.
Dale City Music marketed those lessons in particular to families and young musicians. The store said students could borrow an instrument for their first lesson to determine whether the instructor was a good fit. The shop offered beginner instruments for several disciplines.
The store’s repair department handled woodwinds, brass and stringed instruments, as well as acoustic and electric guitars, electric bass guitars and drums.
The website describes Dale City Music as a longtime resource for Prince William County and Northern Virginia musicians, offering sales, rentals, repairs and lessons.
