Sherman Clay

Sherman, Clay & Co. was an American retailer of musical instruments—mainly pianos—and a publisher and seller of sheet music, founded in San Francisco. Founded in 1853 as A. A. Rosenberg, it was sold to Leander Sherman and Clement Clay in 1870 and was incorporated as Sherman, Clay & Company in 1892. During the 20th century, it gradually expanded its retail operation into a nationwide chain of stores, and by the 1980s it had around 60 stores. It was based in San Francisco until at least the 1970s. In 2013, the company closed or sold its last retail stores.

Founded in 1853 as A. A. Rosenberg, located in San Francisco at the corner of Kearny and Sutter streets, Leander Schutzenbach Sherman (1847–1926) — who had been working as clerk for Rosenberg — bought-out his employer in 1870 and took on Major Clement C. Clay (1836–1905) as a partner in 1879. In 1892, Sherman, Clay & Co. was incorporated with Sherman as president. During the 1890s, the firm imported music, pianos, and musical instruments; and it manufactured pianos and church organs from its own factory. At that time, the two principals were Leonard Georges (born 1850), who served as treasurer, and Louis F. Geissler (born 1861).

By 1894, the company had grown to four stores, with the opening of a store in Portland, Oregon, joining existing ones in San Francisco, Oakland, and Seattle. The Portland store changed locations a few times but, notably, remained in the Woodlark Building from 1930 to 1974, and the company continued to operate a Portland store until 2013. Clay Sherman, grandson of co-founder Leander Sherman, became president of the company in 1949. The company was sold to Bernard Schwartz, of San Francisco, in 1957.

The company had 21 stores in the 1950s, and was continuing to expand. It had 28 stores in spring 1965, all located in the three states of California, Oregon and Washington. Its headquarters was still in San Francisco at that time. The company soon began to expand beyond the West Coast, and by the mid-1970s it had "become a national chain, with stores from Manhattan to Kansas City and Seattle to Los Angeles." In the 1980s, it had around 60 stores.