Historic piano needs good home

Helen Manning has an old piano she’d like to give to someone who will appreciate it and look after it.

“I got it from my neighbours when I lived on Lesterwood Street (near Lawfield Arena),” Manning said of the 93-year-old piano made by Willis Company Ltd. of Montreal. “It’s a piece of Mountain history.” The number on the back of the heavy wood-frame piano indicates it was built in early 1924, said Dan Silverwood of Silverwood Pianos.

Manning said she was given the piano about 15 years ago by Jim Goodwin, who had rescued it from the Queensdale Bible Chapel on Queensdale Avenue after a fire at the chapel in 1994.

“It’s free to a good home, but they have to get it out of here.”

For Manning, getting the piano brought back memories of her childhood and those of her four children.

In the 1960s, she and other children from the neighbourhood attended evening meetings at the chapel where they would get treats, learn about the Bible and occasionally play on the old piano in the church basement.

“It turns out this is the very piano I thumped around on as a little girl,” said Manning, who noted her four children also played on it while attending Sparks for Jesus gatherings at the chapel in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

“It ended coming full circle, and I ended up with the piano.”

Manning said the piano is in pretty good condition, although a couple of the high-note hammers need to be replaced.

Anyone interested in the piano can email Manning at helentmanning@hotmail.com.