The Story of
SugarHill

In the autumn of 1941, a radio repairman named William "Bill" Quinn opened a small recording shop at 3104 Telephone Road in Houston. He called it Quinn Recording Company. His earliest work was practical — personalized voice recordings, radio jingles. But by 1944 he was pressing music, and by 1946 he had founded Gold Star Records, capturing country, Cajun, blues, and gospel artists who could record for $5 a song while Nashville charged $41.

In 1950, Quinn relocated to 5628 Brock Street — the first floor of his own family home — and renamed the operation Gold Star Studios. His wife and son lived upstairs while blues legends and country stars recorded below. The converted kitchen became the main tracking room. Quinn had no formal studio training. He had curiosity, a Presto disc recorder, and a gift for making people comfortable.

What followed was 80-plus years of American music history — the studio passing through the psychedelic era, the Tejano boom, the R&B explosion, and the rise of Houston hip-hop — all without ever losing its footing as the oldest continuously operating recording facility in the United States.