Emlenton man turns key collection into music
Joshua Rowe uses keys to unlock doors just like anyone else, but they also helped him enter a world of arts and crafts.
For nearly two decades, Rowe — who is now in his late 30s — has slowly built up a collection of thousands of antique keys, the bulk of which he has turned into pieces of art.
“I started at a small collection in 2009,” Rowe said. “I went out to different places and I collected keys, and then I turned them into art and I used art to connect with people.”
Rowe estimates he has decorated 3,321 keys as of March 2026. According to his sister, Elisabeth, who now lives in Maryland, Rowe’s keys come mainly from antique dealers and other key enthusiasts.
“I don’t know where he initially got them from, but he made friends with antique dealers,” she said. “Talking for him in person is kind of challenging sometimes, but he communicates via writing. He will email people and offer to trade keys with them, because there’s other key enthusiasts out there across the country.”
For Joshua Rowe — who is autistic — his sister described his fascination with keys as one of his fixations.
“Many people on the spectrum will be hyper-focused on things,” she said. “Joshua has gone from one thing to another, but his big thing is keys now.”
While most of his keys have been turned into art pieces, others have been assembled into impromptu musical instruments. By attaching sets of dozens of specific keys to a long wooden board with fishing line, Rowe can play a song by striking a key against all of the hanging keys in order. For example, “Oh Holy Night” takes 96 keys, while “Joy To The World” takes 57.
The trick, according to his sister, is finding the right keys to play the right notes.
“When you ting the key with another key, it makes a musical note,” she said. “So he finds the ones that match the notes of the song and certain keys are better than others.”
“The largest one I have is 102 keys for The ‘Star-Spangled Banner,’” Rowe said.
