Wendell and Mary Lancaster opened a jewelry store in downtown Gainesville, Ga in 1949. The business was located between what was then Dixie hunt Hotel and the Royal Theater on South Maine Street. Soon after opening, an existing music store down the street became available and they purchased it. Wendell was a trained jeweler and Mary was a church musician so the combination of these two stores was a perfect for them. The name of the business then became J. Wendell Lancaster Jewelry & Music Company. A few years later the old State Theater on East Washington burned. Wendell and Mary purchased that building and after much renovation they relocated the business there. Over the years Wendell and Mary bought into a number of other retail businesses in the downtown area. These included a furniture store, an appliance store and a television store. In 1973 they decided to scale back to just jewelry and sold the other businesses mainly to their employees. Their son, Joey, bought the music part of the business and in 1976 he relocated it to Pearl Nix Parkway. In 1986 a larger 10,000 square foot music store was built adjacent to the first store on Pearl Nix Parkway where it remains today.