Popular Kentucky banjo builder and repairman Arthur Hatfield suffered the loss of his shop to fire on Saturday, January 10.
A wooden musical instrument shop contains a good many combustible materials, and by the time the fire department got to the building in Glasgow, KY, the shop had been consumed.
Fortunately, Arthur was not hurt, but all of the tooling and equipment used to build the Hatfield Banjos was destroyed, along with everything he was working on at the time.
Arthur has been building and repairing banjos for more than 30 years, doing it full time since 2001. Also a banjo player, he had toured with Carl Story as a younger man.
A friend has established a GoFundMe campaign to raise fund to help Hatfield rebuild. They have raised roughly $7,000 of the $50,000 goal in just two days, and more will be required to put things back to what they were. Anyone who loves the banjo, and the Hatfield Banjos in particular, may be moved to make a contribution online.
We are waiting to hear back from Arthur and will update once we learn the extent of his losses, and whether insurance might help him get the shop back in business.
