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"A Dream Comes True"

William Doud Packard was a man with a dream when it came to music.  He loved marches, band music, military music and the musicians who performed the music.  He also loved the city of Warren.

When he wrote his will in 1920, three years before his death, Packard made sure that a dream of keeping music alive in Warren would come true after he passed on.  

Now, nearly 90 years later, that dream has become an important part of the cultural and entertainment life in the Warren area.

W.D. Packard and his brother, James Ward, formed a company in 1891, the New York and Ohio Company, to produce incandescent carbon-arc lamps and transformers.  In 1899, along with George Lewis Weiss, they built the first automobile bearing the Packard name, a car which fast became a respected name in the automotive industry and which led to Packard development of a new product, the automotive ignition cable.  In 1903, the automotive business was moved to Detroit while the cable and manufacturing business remained in Warren, Ohio where today the Delphi Packard Electric Systems is one of the area's largest employers.

W.D. Packard's commitment to his community was evident in 1911 when he gave land to the city of Warren from the family property on Mahoning Avenue to be used as a park.  On July 4, 1915, work was completed and ceremonies were held to dedicate Packard Park with it's ponds, shelter houses and gardens.

In his will, Packard designated that funds would be set aside in a trust to build a music hall and finance the establishment of a band to play in it for the "edification and entertainment of the people of Warren".  The city of Warren became beneficiary after Katherine Packard, W.D. Packard's wife, died in 1940.  Costs had increased from the 1920's when the will was written and the $150,000 allocated for the hall was hardly adequate in the 1950's the build the hall Packard had envisioned.  1.4 million was used from the trust to build the W.D. Packard Music Hall with the remainder of the income from the trust to be used to maintain the band.

The first step toward actually building Mr. Packard's hall came on March 5, 1942, when the Packard Park Board of Trustees composed of L.C. Brown, W.C. Ward, D.S. McElrath and B.N. MacGregor, approved a resolution accepting the conditions and provisions of the Packard will that led to the construction of the hall.

Today, the Packard Music Hall is the center of cultural and entertainment programs in the Warren area and averages over 150,000 in attendance each year.  It is the site of a wide variety of events including ballets, children's programs, theatre, corporate meetings, high school graduations, dance recitals, pro-wrestling, gala balls, and many other programs including, of course, the free monthly Packard Band Concerts.  The Hall has been used annually by organizations such as the Warren Civic Music Association, Trumbull Town Hall, the Barbershoppers, the Warren Philharmonic Orchestra, and many others.  For two decades (from 1958-1978) it was the home of the Kenley Players and gained national recognition during that time.  It also served as a temporary home for hundreds of Warren residents, who were flooded out of the homes in 1959, as the hall became a disaster center.

It has a seating capacity of nearly 2500 and also includes small meeting rooms, a kitchen and dressing rooms.  The Packard will provided nothing for maintenance, so annual operating costs are covered by hall rental and city subsidies.

The hall officially opened on October 15, 1955.  W.B. Gibson was the building contractor and Arthur Sidells was the architect.

When B.N. MacGregor, president of the Packard Park Board of Trustees, accepted the keys to the building he said he was receiving the keys "in a sacred trust for W.D. Packard".  Warren Mayor William C. Burbank called the hall a "fulfillment of a dream".

Concurrent with the opening of the music hall in 1955, Packard's dream of a concert band was being realized with the organization of the W.D. Packard Concert Band.

Mr. Packard, in his will, had specified that his longtime friend Bradford D. Gilliliand would be its first leader, but Gilliland died in 1931.

The Packard Board of Trustees named George Garstick as the band's first musical advisor, consultant and the first band manager.  Garstick, a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, had a broad musical background, having played and toured with symphony orchestras and professional bands throughout the United States.  It was the effort of Garstick, Charles Corlett, then president of the Warren Federation of Musicians Local 118, and Roger Coe, the first conductor, that pulled the band together in its early years.

Because of W.D. Packard's generosity, Warren area residents are able to appreciate today a heritage that dates back to the 1800's when town bands were a part of American life.

W.D. Packard took pride in this aspect of American Heritage and his dream lives on today more than 50 years after the first musical notes were sounded in the hall named for him through The W.D. Packard Music Hall, by his band, and The W.D. Packard Concert Band.