A New Home for an Old Piano

We have a new member of the family today, an upright piano that we found on Craig’s list. The price was right. It was offered for free to whomever would come and haul it away. After sharing the link with my piano-playing brother (who advised us to go for it), and visting it with my wife and daughter, we agreed to take it. Wisely, I hired a moving company to pick it up and deliver it, a decision that was well reinforced by watching the effort it took to unload it and get in into our house.

The piano is a ‘Kingsbury’ model upright, manufactured by the Chicago Cable Company. Based on its serial number, it’s likely this piano was built between 1905 and 1910. It needs some work. Several of the keys are missing their ivory, and it needs to be tuned. A bottle of furniture polish will go a long way to reveal some beautuiful wood. And we’ll need to find a matching bench or stool.

I’ve been promising my wife a piano for years, and with our addition in the works, we will soon have the room needed to accomodate it. We always had a piano in my home growing up, and so did my wife. So it feels right having one. And I’m intrigued by its age. How many owners has this particular piano had in its 100 years? How many parties have gathered around it? How many players have pounded its keys?

Then again, I’m apprehensive. I’m not raising any little Mozart’s here. Will I be able to bear the “music”? I worry this may join ‘keeping one of the kittens’ as a decision I will regret. Time will tell.