Universal York

In my column a couple of months ago on the Weaver Organ and Piano Company, I asked readers to share their stories about with the company and its instruments. I have heard from several people about their Weaver encounters, as well as from some that would currently be happy to give away a piano to anyone willing to come and get it.

Ellen and Bob Meckley shared the account below, via Nancy Meredith. I have a feeling their Weaver piano is going to be in that house for a long, long time. Ellen writes:

In the late 60s or early 70s, our neighbor, Mr. Trimmer came to our door with a rolled-up newspaper telling us that it represented the dimensions of his piano, and that if it fit into our scheme of things, and if we wanted the piano, all we had to do was move it, and it was ours. Being a singer and coming from a musical family, we, of course, said yes.

Mr. Trimmer, (who is deceased) worked at the Weaver Organ and Piano Company and had purchased this piano for his daughter, Miriam (who is now deceased), as she was a piano teacher for many years. We all happened to go to the same church, so we knew each other. So, my husband and two neighbors rolled the piano up the street and into our house. The piano sat in the living room for several years, and was enjoyed by me, family and friends. Eventually our two children took piano lessons and practiced on it, and we decided we needed a music room. So, my creative minded husband thought we could move it to the basement. Since I had full confidence in him, we tackled the task at hand.

It took us three days – one day to get ready, one day to move it, and one day to put everything back in its place. We had to remove a door from the dining room to get to the kitchen, we had to remove the sink from the wall, take off the door to the basement, build a plank to go down three steps to the landing, remove the door to the outside, and then remove the nine steps to the basement floor.

Now how did we move the piano, you ask? We rolled it through two rooms to the kitchen, at which time we attached industrial nylon ropes around the piano, and then connected a block and tackle, which went out our kitchen window to the end of our yard and wrapped around the telephone pole. We slowly lowered the piano down the three steps to the landing, and then to the basement, to our neighbor, standing at the bottom to guide its direction. At the almost perfect landing, one of the nylon ropes tore, and the top corner of the piano hit the wall, making only a scratch on the piano, and none on the wall.

So, the third day we had to put everything we removed back to its original state. Miraculously no one was hurt, and the piano was still in tune – which goes to prove the quality and durability of Weaver Pianos.

We often joked that if and when we moved, the piano would go with the house. We have moved from our house of forty-eight years, nearly three years ago, to a condo. Our piano is still in the basement, where our daughter and family now live.

So, who knows the fate of this beloved piano? Anybody want a really good piano? (Just for the moving.)

Here are links to my several previous posts on the Weaver company, its products and students.

York woman remembers playing Weaver piano in large concerts.

Dempwolf architects designed Weaver building.

More on how the Weaver factory complex grew.

Famed musicians praised Weaver instruments.