by Andra Moss

“Whoa!” This is the delighted response of visitor after visitor upon stepping inside the New England Accordion Connection & Museum Company (NEACMC), newly opened in the historic Canaan Union Depot railroad station alongside the railroad museum and Great Falls Brewing Company. The word does pretty much capture the experience: the museum’s large room can barely contain the floor-to-ceiling dazzle of hundreds of extraordinary instruments, not to mention the exuberance of its director, Paul Ramunni.

How exactly did the oldest operating union station in the United States come to house one of the country’s rare galleries dedicated to keeping the spirit and influence of the accordion alive? 

As Ramunni recalls, it began 12 years ago while he was vacationing in Vermont with his wife, Marcia. Something suddenly prompted a strong desire to start playing accordion again. It had been years, though, since he had last played, and he no longer had an instrument. Locating a local Vermont collector, they stopped in. Among the dozens of accordions, Ramunni noticed several small concertina-style pieces, all old and rusted, many with missing pieces. His inquiry revealed that these had been the instruments of prisoners in Nazi concentration camps. Ramunni was deeply moved. Suddenly, he saw the pieces as conduits of history, wondering, “What else has happened to these accordions? Where have they been?”

So began the Ramunnis’ odyssey of collecting accordions. As they unearthed instruments at tag sales, barns and antique shops, they also found that each had a unique story. “It just got ahold of us,” says Ramunni. “There’s value here, there’s history. It’s not just an object like a hammer or a saw; it’s a relationship.”  

As the instruments, and their stories, flowed in, the NEACMC was born. For years, the Ramunnis ran it from a building at their Canaan home, often taking exhibits on the road to senior centers, libraries, historical societies and other groups. 

A recent move to Lakeville, however, left them wondering what to do next. Unbelievably, the perfect spot became available—the historic Union Depot in North Canaan. “This space was a miracle,” says Ramunni. They had to move quickly, but soon their collection of more than 500 accordions had a new home. 

The NEACMC collection follows the development of accordions from around 1800 through the height of their popularity in the 1950s and today’s state-of-the-art instruments. It includes button, piano and even digital accordions. Among their vintage treasures are a rare 1829 “Flutina,” Art Deco wonders of the 1920s and 1930s and Lawrence Welk’s first accordion. Visitors should be sure to look for the spectacular instrument that once belonged to Barbara O’Connell, who, as a young virtuoso, entertained over 300,000 troops during World War II, many of them mere hours away from deploying to the front lines.

In addition to the impressive free display, the Ramunnis offer accordion sales, servicing, repair, lessons and sheet music. They will happily organize a “traveling museum” to play and display pieces and tell their stories. “We’d love to go into schools,” noted Marcia Ramunni, “once that’s allowed again.”

Fundamentally, the accordion museum is a labor of love, says Paul Ramunni. “We said, ‘we’re retired; we want to do something that makes people happy and shows folks that we can enjoy one another.’ The accordion is an old way of doing that, but effective. I put it on and play for you and all of a sudden there’s a friendship.” 

The free museum is by appointment, but generally visitors will find it open 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturdays. Visit www.neacme.com or call 860-833-1374 for more details.