Christian Frederick Martin, Nazareth, Northampton County

Happy Groundhog Day! One of these years I'll get out to Gobbler's Knob and meet the famous Punxsutawney Phil for myself. Yes, there's a marker, but more importantly, there's a cute critter. Anyway, I'm hoping and praying that Phil has promised an early end to winter.

Unfortunately, regardless of what the Seer of Seers decrees, it's still really cold. So let's warm ourselves with some music by visiting the oldest guitar manufacturer in the United States.

The marker stands outside the entrance to the original
Nazareth workshop, at 10 West North Street

"Well, the first thing it's important to get right, obviously, is that C. F. Martin Sr. invented the guitar."

This quote comes from Chris Martin, the great-great-great-grandson of the subject of today's marker, and it's a joke - mostly. Chris (or rather, Christian Frederick Martin IV) is the sixth Martin to helm the Martin Guitar Company, one of the Lehigh Valley's most recognizable brands, whose products have been used by famous musicians including Elvis Presley, Willie Nelson, Colbie Caillat, Eric Clapton, and (a personal favorite of mine) Peter Capaldi. Martin is known worldwide as one of the finest producers of acoustic guitars, and most of their products are made, just as they have been for nearly 200 years, right here in Pennsylvania.

The story starts with the original Christian Frederick Martin, usually called C. F. Martin for short. He was born in Germany, in the region known as the Electorate of Saxony, on January 31, 1796. (Yes, I'm writing about him this week in honor of his birthday.) As a young man, he and his family belonged to the local cabinetmaking guild, which also made guitars, and C. F. apprenticed under a master guitar maker in Austria named Johann Stauffer. He was one of five brothers and sisters; but by 1832, C. F.'s parents and all of his siblings had died. Around the same time, a heated dispute arose between the cabinetmaking guild to which he belonged and the violin-making guild. They quarreled over who had the rights to make guitars. Although his own guild won the dispute, this conflict left him dissatisfied, and with no surviving members of his birth family left, he decided to head for America with his wife and their two kids. Settling in New York City in 1833, C. F. established a shop in which he practiced his craft in the back room and sold instruments and sheet music in the front. With the guitar-making skills he learned from his mentor Stauffer and cabinet-making skills he was taught by his father, he worked to perfect the design and manufacture of guitars, using dovetailing techniques and what became the company's signature X-bracing to bring the wood together to create the right sound.

C. F.'s wife was Lucia Ottilia Kühle, the daughter of a Viennese harp maker, and we have her to thank for the fact that Martin Guitars are a distinctly Pennsylvania product. She took a trip to Nazareth to visit a friend, and fell in love with the charming little community; I find this very easy to believe, because it's really a lovely place. Upon returning to New York, she persuaded her husband to pack up one more time and relocate to the verdant Lehigh Valley to pursue his life's work there. So the original shop was closed down, and the Martins came to Pennsylvania in 1838. 

The workshop was initially in a different community, because Nazareth was a Moravian settlement and outsiders were not permitted to buy property there. But in 1856, they changed their policy about selling land to non-Moravians; the following year, C. F. Martin & Co. purchased property at 10 West North Street in Nazareth, seen at left. A plaque near the historical marker affirms that the building dates from 1859. As such, it is on the National Register of Historic Places, and has been since 2018. They don't make the guitars in the original building anymore; the modern factory is at 510 Sycamore Street, which was purchased in 1964 and is just a short drive from the 1859 site. The original factory is now home to the Guitar Makers Connection, a specialty shop which caters to people who make or repair guitars.

Despite multiple improvements over the years to increase productivity and streamline the process, Martin Guitars are still all made by hand and each one takes a good four months or more to complete from start to finish. The Dreadnought shape, first created by the company in 1916, has become the most common style for the body of an acoustic guitar. A second factory has been established in Mexico, where certain products are manufactured to help keep up with the demand. Martin will even design a custom guitar to the buyer's specifications, which is usually the case with the celebrity musicians who prefer Martin quality.

Doors to the Guitar Makers Connection

Our friend C. F. passed away on February 16, 1873, and is buried in Nazareth's Moravian Cemetery with his wife. Their son, C. F. Jr., had already begun taking a very active role in the company after his father suffered a stroke in 1850, becoming a vital part of the "& Co." and helping to select the original Nazareth location. The second C. F. only ran the company for a short period compared to his father's long tenure, though during his time he contributed greatly to the company's modernization, adding things like steam power to increase the workshop's efficiency. His son Frank ran the company for sixty years and, among other things, oversaw the company creating a line of ukuleles in response to the annexation of Hawaii in 1915 and the resultant interest in Hawaiian music. After Frank came C. F. III and Frank II; this father and son team carried the company from World War II to the mid-1980s, overseeing the acquisition of the Darco Strings company and the boom of Martin guitars as a favorite of folk musicians. In 1986 the reins passed to the current C. F. Martin, familiarly called Chris, who has brought Martin Guitars into the 21st century. He's the one who, in 1996, established the Martin Charitable Foundation as a way to give back to the community; the organization supports various endeavors throughout the Lehigh Valley, particularly those with a focus on arts.

Factory tours of Martin Guitars and walk-in repairs are currently suspended indefinitely because of the pandemic. However, the 1833 Shop (their specialty gift shop) and the Martin Museum (an interesting look at the company's history) have reopened to the public, Monday through Friday, as has the Guitar Makers Connection. Please note that social distancing is encouraged, with capacity limits enforced, and masks are required. Admission is free, though a $5 donation to the Martin Charitable Foundation is encouraged. If you can't make it, or don't feel quite comfortable, never fear - a series of virtual tours hosted by Chris Martin himself are available on the website at no charge.

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Sources and Further Reading:

Official website of the Martin Guitar Company

Walsh, Jonathan R. "A Tradition of Creativity: Six Generations of Martin Leadership." Martin: The Journal of Acoustic Guitars, volume 10. Produced in Nazareth, Pennsylvania, 2020.

Wagaman, Andrew. "Original Martin factory hits high note." The Allentown Morning Call, December 5, 2018.

Boak, Dick, with C. F. Martin IV. Images of America: C. F. Martin & Co. Arcadia Publishing, August 2014.

C. F. Martin at FindAGrave.com

Christian Frederick Martin at the Historical Marker Database

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Except where indicated, all writing and photography on this blog is the intellectual property of Laura Klotz. This blog is written with permission of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. I am not employed by the PHMC. All rights reserved.