Meet Penelope Wilson (My c. 1860s Square Piano)

There’s that gorgeous chunk of wood–my lovely old square grand piano. Isn’t she a beauty? Wait, what–you’ve never seen a square piano? Well, my friend, lemme tell you about this unique instrument! They are on the “endangered species” list as far as playable square grands are concerned. Sadly, folks rather turn them into desks or tear them apart instead of fixing and using them.

I was on the phone one evening with my sister right before I was about to purchase the McCuiston House. “You know you need one of those square pianos for your parlor, right?” She was half-joking, but I would have loved to have one. “If God wants me to have it, He will drop one in my lap!”

And that He did.

To make a long story short, the very next morning one of my friends sent me a Craigslist link for a square piano for sale for $700. I am told it is extremely rare to find one of these things in playable condition. Not only was this piano playable (except for not having been tuned in 15 years), it had been continuously in the same family since its original purchase in the 1860s in Atlanta, Georgia. I was told by the seller that the family moved to Winston-Salem, North Carolina, to join R.J. Reynolds tobacco business. They lived in the area of what is now known as the West End Historic District. The piano continued to be passed through the family until I purchased it. The lady who owned the piano had decided to downsize, and she and her family decided they had no more use for the old square grand. I talked the family down to selling it for $500, and I believe it’s probably one of the best purchases I’ve made yet for the old McCuistion House.

Sadly, the ivory keys were replaced at some point with a modern plastic-type key cover. Not only does it look weird, it doesn’t have the same feel as playing on actual ivory keys. I feel that my fingers slide better on ivory than today’s style. I hope to be able to find some old ivory key covers one day to recover my keys.

I’ve had her for a few years now, but she still hasn’t been tuned up yet. When I called every piano shop in my area, I was told the same thing– there is only one man in the entire Piedmont region of North Carolina who is trusted and able to restore and tune these old square pianos. He has worked on pianos well over 45 years. Thankfully, he happens to be a friend of mine. I had called him to check the piano out before I bought it, and he explained that these old instruments are rarely playable and can cost a large amount of money to restore to playable condition. When he saw this one, he said it was probably the best example he had seen in his career. (I knew my gut was telling me I couldn’t pass it up!) He also told me most of the strings appeared to be original, which isn’t very common. He keeps a very busy schedule with tuning pianos, and so far he just hasn’t had the time in his schedule to take about a day and get it in tune.

Here’s how she currently sounds (one of my friends playing “Amazing Grace”. She’s an excellent pianist. The piano itself is just sick…):

And here’s how she’s supposed to sound, plus a little bit of information about these old instruments:

One of these days she will be in tune and ready to be played without murdering folks’ eardrums! Until then, she adds some nice style to the old parlor at the McCuiston House. (also until then, Joy the Papillon will probably continue to flee to another room while her adopted hooman mom attempts to peck away at the keys.)

Have you ever seen one of these before? Tell me what you think about these rare instruments in the comments below!