The Von Huene Workshop. Leitz Summitar 50mm

I first visited the Von Huene Workshop and the adjacent Early Music Shop of New England in June, 1982.  The mission was to buy a  Baroque one-keyed flute, bring it back to South Africa, and learn how to play it,  a simple assignment...  I was taken there, and introduced to Nikolaus Von Huene, - who ran the retail shop -, by one of my future classmates at the New England Conservatory.  Evidently this was enough, because Nikolaus was happy to let me put down a $100 deposit on a $750 flute, and promise to send him the balance from South Africa.  These were 1982 Dollars - that was a lot of money.  I was surprised at how relaxed he was about the whole thing, but then, I didn't yet know the Von Huenes.  As the years went by, and I joined Boston's instrument making community, I met Friedrich and Inge, refugees from post-WW2 Germany. He was the consummate craftsman of wooden flutes and recorders, and she the business brains behind the scheme, preventing Friedrich from giving the farm away at the slightest opportunity.  They shared an incredible generosity of spirit, and an old-world charm, seemingly gone today.  As the decades went by, I moved out of the harpsichord making business, no longer played the flute, and I lost touch with these wonderful people.  I was saddened to hear of Friedrich's passing in 2016.  I found an obituary from his Alma Mater, Bowdoin College in Maine .  But I also found Inge's, who passed away just last year, 2023.
After years running the retail business, Nikolaus returned to his teaching career, and Patrick, a chef, took over the recorder-making business after Friedrich was gone.  The store is still run by a veteran of the Boston Early Music circle, a flute player himself.  But the sad truth is that Early Music and instrument making have passed Boston and the U.S. by; the flame burns strongly in Europe and Japan now.  It's just a matter of time before the Von Huene Workshop will be gone, that delightful little building flattened to make way for yet more condos.  I thought it was time to record the place, and reminisce some about these folks whom I was privileged to know.
I've included a couple of Extras: the first to show a more general view of the little building housing the workshop upstairs, the second, an angle that I liked.