Member Spotlight

Neil and Marcus Dorsey, Dorsey's Record Shop

As we celebrate Black History Month we don't have to go far in our neighborhood to recognize a business that has definitely made history in the Homewood com-munity.

Dorsey's Record Shop has been in business for 65 years. A family owned and operated business, now in its third generation of Dorseys who run the establish-ment. For the Dorsey family, it started back in 1946 with the late Cornelius Dorsey. He opened Dorsey Radio and sold race re-cords (black music) as it was called back then and did home radio repairs. Once car radios were installed he fixed them as well. Cornelius Dorsey was known as one of the first RCA radio repairmen. Dorsey's Radio moved along with the times, with the transformation from repair-ing radios to fixing black and white TVs. As time and elec-tronics continued to change so did Dorseys. Cornelius' son, Neil (who runs Dorsey's Record Shop today) joined the family business full-time in 1971 after college and three years in the service. When Neil started working at the shop, color TVs were coming into the picture. He made the transition from fix-ing black and white televisions to color TVs. The repairs didn't stop there, they also found their nitch in repairing home electron-ics like receivers, record players and VCR tapes to name a few. From the 70s, 80s to the 90s...with home electronic re-pairs becoming a thing of the past and technology taking over, Neil went back to school to learn how to repair computers. Dor-sey's transitioned again, with Neil's son, Marcus joining the family business full-time with his background in computer editing. Dorsey's Record Shop has always been known for service/repairs and retail sales with music being an auxiliary business.

Service might be the shop's main source of income, but Dorsey's Record Shop is very well known for their gospel and jazz music collection. Neil says, "there's not a lot of places in the tri-state area that sale gospel music." The newly remodeled Dorsey's Re-cord Shop dedicates an entire wall to gospel music.

What kept Dorsey's Repair Shop in Homewood for 65 years? Neil says, "family tradition". He added, his father (Cornelius) grew up in Homewood and at-tended George Westinghouse High School. Also, Neil grew up in Homewood and attended his father's alma mater. He lived two blocks away from the family shop and now his son resides in the same home both he and his father grew up in. Neil adds how much the neighborhood has
changed and transitioned, but there is something about Homewood. He feels there is so much potential in the Homewood community. Neil Dorsey along with other business owners on his block have come to-gether to create a plan to develop commercial businesses on Frank-stown Avenue. It looks like Dor-sey's Record Shop will continue to have a presence in the Homewood community for many years to come. Dorsey's Record Shop is opened from 10 AM to 6 PM Monday thru Saturday.