See Famous Guitarist's Bergen County House Just Before Demolition

BERGEN COUNTY, NJ — After the Mahwah home and workshop of famous guitarist Les Paul was destroyed last month, the musician's son said he was horrified that the family were not given any notice. But according to family friends, someone did manage to take footage of the structure just before the last phase of demolition.

Gene Paul, 82 — the oldest surviving child of the legendary guitarist — told Patch in an interview last month that a foundation was in control of the mansion on Deerhaven Road after the guitar great passed away in 2009. The foundation sold it to a private owner in July.

It was then demolished by the new owners. Gene said he wished the family could have been informed in advance in order to look at possible relics that were left, and celebrate their father's life.

Paul said that after his father died at the age of 94, the guitarist's former business partner and a foundation have controlled the house and its belongings.

But someone who found out about the demolition managed to get to the property late last month and take a video before the structure was completely torn down.

The footage shows that machinery and other features of the house were still around at the end.

YouTube Video

The video, "The Sad Fate Of Les Paul's Historic Home," was posted last week.

The videographer says "a buddy and I" went to the site to see the home of Les Paul, "ground zero of the technology of multitrack recording, arguably the most important achievement in modern music."

The narrator adds, "Surely no one would be careless enough to let us deteriorate."

Walking through the property, he says the state of the house is "horrifying," and calls the deterioration "a travesty of American culture and history...something was rotten in Mahwah."

Gene Paul, a North Jersey-based musician himself, told Patch he and his younger siblings received little information about the guitar great's assets after his death, but preferred to stay cordial with the foundation.

A family friend sent Patch this mockup that shows what kind of plaque could be placed near the property in Mahwah.

Gene said last week, "My father’s Mahwah home wasn’t simply an old house where a famous man once lived. It was a place where Les Paul lived, worked, experimented and helped change the way the world makes and records music. Imagine what could be standing there today if preservation had been pursued from the beginning ... It didn't have to be a museum. It simply had to be preserved."

History

Lester "Les Paul" Polsfuss was born in Wisconsin in 1915. He began playing music as a child, and experimented with his first Sears acoustic guitar to get the best sound, according to his bio.

He went on to invent a modern guitar that was sold by the company Gibson. He's the only person to have been inducted into both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the National Inventors' Hall of Fame.

Paul and his second wife, Mary Ford, recorded a string of blues and jazz hits in the 1950s at the dawn of rock and roll, gaining national fame on American Bandstand and other popular TV shows.

He moved to the Mahwah mansion in 1952 and filled it with equipment.

Gene Paul said that in his youngest years, he lived with his mother (Les Paul's first wife) in Chicago. But he dropped out of high school and moved to Mahwah to learn from his dad when he was 14.

"Dad would say, 'Go up hook up this equipment.' I learned a craft without knowing I was learning it."

The Les Paul Foundation published a statement on social media last month saying, "We feel it is important to respond to the sadness expressed by Les Paul fans, friends and family over the sale and demolition of the Mahwah home. As in every case, two sides of a story always provide important details. Like so many people around the world — we are enormous fans of Les and respect his generous force in music history. That is why it is very important to clarify that Les Paul's legacy, personal history, and creative work have been treated with the utmost care."

Nonetheless, the videographers and others have expressed shock that the house and workshop were sold to private owners, and taken down.

Guitarist Tom Doyle, a longtime friend Les Paul who still participates in annual tributes at the Mahwah Museum, released a statement last week accusing the foundation of "demolition by neglect."

"National Historic Landmark status could have brought preservation scrutiny and significant obstacles to demolition," Doyle wrote.

See Patch's previous reporting here: Famed Guitarist's Family Furious Over Demolition Of NJ Home, Workshop

Watch the YouTube video here.