The hum of an accordion might transport you to the streets of Paris or a drafty Italian restaurant with red and white checkered tablecloths and candles stuck in Chianti bottles. Maybe polka comes to mind; senior citizens with their socks pulled up to their knees squeezing the bellows in the corner of a Polish community center.

But accordions have regained popularity in modern music of all genres, and the country’s most famous accordion manufacturer is in Seattle’s backyard. Petosa Accordions’ Seattle roots run deep. In 1922, Italian immigrant Carlo Petosa started building accordions in the basement of his Seattle house. He had been an accordion player for years, working the vaudeville scene while apprenticing at a well-respected San Francisco accordion factory.