Playing It Again, Sam
Cedar Valley Nature Trail, Linn County
Sunday, May 5, 2013
CP HISTORICAL SOCIETY
PLAYING IT AGAIN, SAM
It’s
back! The player piano belonging to the
Center Point Historical Society has been restored by Jack Niewoehner of Elkader
and returned to the Depot Museum—between snow storms—literally as good as when
it was new in 1923.
Jack
delivered the Warfield Player on March 1, 2013, and on hand to welcome it was
Arnold Lanning of Cedar Rapids. The
piano was bought by his parents, Earl and Elva Boyd Lanning of Green’s Grove,
when he was a baby. The Lanning family
donated the piano to the Historical Society a decade ago.
Jack found inside this player, while restoring
it, two 22 rifle shell casings and a diary key.
During his 35 years plus of restoring more than 100 player pianos he’s
fished out lots of coins and little toys and photos, some table knives, once a
little communion glass. The saddest and
most interesting discovery, he said, was in a player he’d bought at
auction. He found an old purse with 30
one dollar bills stuffed in it. He
backtracked the piano’s story and found it had once belonged to an alcoholic
husband whose wife hid money from him so she could feed their kids.
The
piano restoration was made possible by a grant from the Linn County Supervisors
through the Linn County Historic Preservation Commission. Linn County, unique in the state, has been
setting aside money for more than 20 years for grants to local historical and
other non-profit groups to preserve the county’s heritage.
At its
regular meeting, Tuesday, February 26, at the Depot Museum, the Center Point
Historical Society decided to have a player piano party to open its Museum
season, Sunday, May 5, from 2 to 4. This
year’s Historical Society theme is the Civil War and the Warfield has a new
roll of Civil War tunes to play for visitor’s listening pleasure. The Museum will be open 2 to 4 every Sunday
afternoon from May 5 through October 13.
Admission is free.
