Sacred Steel Music &
History Museum
The Sacred Steel Music and History Museum was established by Del and Kelli Grace in 2024, in Toledo, Ohio. The museum space is located in the historic Old West End district inside of the Collingwood Presbyterian church. The museum highlights artifacts, bio stories, interviews, etc. telling the stories of the many tradition bearers of sacred steel music over the past 80 years.
The Sacred Steel Music and History Museum is dedicated to the preservation and exhibition of the time- honored Hawaiian steel guitar from an African American perspective. It includes the lives and works of prominent musicians, the evolution and variety of lap and pedal steel guitars. The stories of the early pioneers of sacred steel such as brothers Troman and Willie Eason, Henry Nelson, and Lorenzo Harrison can be found and studied in the museum.
Dual Functioning Space
Our large open space temporarily doubles as a museum and a performing arts event center for venues with an eight five seat capacity. The portable walls have locking wheel casters underneath used to keep the walls from moving. A total of six L-shaped walls front and back totaling 24 sides are inundated with eighty years of sacred steel music history.
Extra Large Display Cases
Our extra-large display cases were built by a carpenter friend named Alan Brown, formerly of Akron, Ohio. Each of the cases are full of sacred steel memorabilia, photos, posters, plaques, steel guitars, mannequins, many honorable mentions honoring Felton Williams Jr, the Campbell Brothers, Aubrey Ghent and a monitor playing footage featuring the 2019 Queens of Sacred Steel.
Sacred Steel Archive & Research Center
The Sacred Steel Archive & Research Center in Toledo, Ohio, acquires, promotes and preserves sacred steel materials in a variety of formats. Five touch screen computers with headphones contain the largest repository of African American sacred steel audio and video recordings, interviews, documentaries, concerts and other sacred steel related materials in the world. A great resource for researchers, scholars, ethnomusicologist, and sacred steel fans alike.
Harmony House Performing Arts Center
Harmony House Performing Arts Center- Named after our first granddaughter Harmony London Grace.
The HHPA center is an event center focused on Wholesome, unobjectionable, uplifting entertainment that the family can enjoy together and will leave you feeling good. The HHPA center is a space that welcomes a variety of musical performances as well as word-based performance art such as spoken word, poetry, and clean comedy.
We offer a back line of equipment as part of our rental package that provides 3 guitar and 1 bass amp, keyboard, drum kit, microphones and PA mixing board.
Toledo Quartet Musical Association
The Toledo Quartet Musical Association, (TQMA) was organized in 1950. Until now no one thought to preserve its rich legacy. Their space within the museum is modest but the presentation is very powerful with a montage of photos, CD’s, and Albums displayed of several past and present quartet groups. One touch screen computer full of audio and video performances is accessible for lovers of gospel quartet music. A great educational tool for gospel music enthusiast and researchers of local history.
Meet the team
Our Excellent & Expert Staff
Sacred Strings Records, Inc. Commitee
Our UPCominG EVENTS
For The City of Toledo
Each year in August, many African American lap and pedal steel players make the pilgrimage to Toledo, Ohio for this annual celebration and live video recording.
The honorable mayor of the city of Toledo (Mayor Paula Hicks Hudson) proclaimed the month of August, Sacred Steel Music and History month in 2015.
The mayor personally hand delivered the proclamation to Del Ray and Kelli Grace, recognizing the importance of preserving the time-honored tradition of the steel guitar.
FAQS
What is Sacred Steel?
Sacred Steel is an African-American gospel tradition that features the steel guitar in religious services. It originated in Pentecostal churches in the 1930s
Where did Sacred Steel originate?
It developed in the Church of the Living God, particularly in the Keith and Jewell Dominions.
How did Sacred Steel gain popularity?
Sacred Steel gained wider recognition through performances by artists like Robert Randolph, Calvin Cooke, Aubrey Ghent and the Campbell Brothers, who brought the genre to international fame.
God Bless Sacred Steel!
Get In Touch
