Music returning to the Peterborough Town House came a bit closer to becoming a reality this week, as funds were received to begin restoring a piano that has been parked upstairs on the Town House stage. 

On Tuesday, the Select Board voted to accept a $20,000 grant from the New Hampshire State Council of the Arts and a donation of $26,390 from the Monadnock Folklore Society to restore the piano. The Chickering piano is estimated to have been built in the 1890s by Chickering & Sons of Boston, the nation’s first manufacturer of pianos. It was gifted to the town in 1913, but it remains unclear who gave it to Peterborough. 

The instrument was used regularly for folk and contra dances held at the Town House, but was damaged while being moved a decade ago. It is known in the contra dancing community as “Johnny Trombly’s piano,” after the piano player in Ralph Page’s orchestra, which led the resurgence American of folk and contra dancing out of Nelson through the 1960s. The late composer and dance caller Bob McQuillen played the piano at decades of Peterborough contra dances.

The grant funds were made possible in part through fees for the Moose Plates issued by the Department of Natural & Cultural Resources. Alison Kreutz wrote the successful grant application.

Lisa Sieverts of the Monadnock Folklore Society presented the Select Board with a check for the balance of repair costs at the meeting. 

“The piano should be picked up Tuesday and will be restored in Shirley, Mass.,” said Select Board Chair Tyler Ward. “The work is expected to take nine to 12 months.”

In other news, the board voted unanimously to appoint Carl Staley as a member of the CIP Committee, to appoint Joel Huberman as a member of the Recycling Advisory Committee and to appoint David Odland and Tony Pascale to the Budget Committee.