PAUL HAHN – The Keys to One Man’s Success

Paul Hahn & Company has proudly borne the name of its founder, innovator and inspiration, Paul Hahn, for 100 years.

Paul Hahn was born in 1875.  He was one of 17 children and immigrated to Canada from Stuttgart, Germany, with most of his family in 1888.  As a young man, he was a renowned cellist with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, widely toured Ontario and New York state, played with a string quartet on the radio, taught cello and conducted Haydn’s Kinder Symphonie, the first orchestral concert ever at the Arts and Letters Club in 1911.  He worked at the Nordheimer Piano Company from 1892-1913, where he rose through the ranks from their sheet music department to becoming one of their top salespeople.

On September 13, 1913, Paul fulfilled his boyhood dream and opened his own shop at 717 Yonge Street, where he not only restored and sold quality pianos but gramophones and sheet music as well.  The business at various times thrived and survived, until the site was expropriated in the 1950’s, and Paul Hahn & Co. was forced to move.

Paul married Grace Delamare in 1929 and they appropriately honeymooned in Europe in order to meet up with the famous Steinway family in Hamburg, Germany. Paul and Grace had two children, Marie Grace in 1930 and Paul Jr. in 1932. Paul Jr. joined the company in 1948 and they eventually moved the family business to their current, easily recognizable red-brick Rosedale location at 1058 Yonge Street.

Paul Sr. handed over the active reins of his established business to Paul Jr. in 1955 but stayed on throughout his life as the company chairman. His retirement allowed him to concentrate on his music; various committees and clubs like the Arts & Letters Club and The Royal Canadian Yacht Club; his stamp collecting hobby; but most of all, his other real lifelong passion, birds. He was a recognized authority on extinct and vanishing birds, writing many articles, lecturing and researching the subject. He donated 68 passenger pigeon specimens, as well as his extensive stamp collection, to the ROM, where he was honoured as a Patron and is to this day much revered.

One of Paul’s brothers, Emanuel, was an artist, sculptor and designer of coins and stamps; and another brother Gustav, was a member of the Ontario Society of Artists.

Paul Hahn Sr. peacefully passed away at the family cottage on Balsam Lake in 1962 at the age of the 87.  His music, his passion and his generosity touched so many and were the keys to his successes.  He will never be forgotten.