The popular Red Onion Records shop’s future Hyattsville location flooded last weekend when a pipe broke.
Owner Joshua Harkavy told the Hyattsville Wire that an overhead pipe burst at the location at 4208 Gallatin St., near Yoga Space, sending water cascading down onto valuable vintage records.
“Thankfully, our friends, neighbors, and complete strangers worked tirelessly for hours helping sort and save what we could,” he wrote on Instagram.
Though he called the flooding a setback, Harkavy said he still hopes to open the Hyattsville outpost of his U Street record shop in April.
Since starting Red Onion in 2006, Harkavy ran it from his basement, then out of a location in Adams Morgan. In 2012, he announced he would close the shop, had a change of heart and kept it open, and moved to U Street in 2015 where he’s been selling records since.
Red Onion is known for having a well-curated selection of new, used and rare records, so the damaged records from the flooding are not easy to replace. But Harkavy is always interested in buying everything from classic rock to punk, country and folk records.
Be sure to give them some support and stop by their D.C. location at 1628 U St. NW, and check out an avant garde collection they just received.