By Kat Bryant
Grays Harbor News Group
The Aberdeen Museum of History is building its future with help from a recent contribution by Tom Quigg.
The Harbor real estate agent has donated his family’s rosewood “square grand” piano, which was originally owned by Carl S. and Belle Weatherwax in the late 1800s.
The Armory fire destroyed the city-owned museum’s home and much of its collection in June 2018. In the two years since then, salvage and restoration operations have been ongoing; and the board just recently began accepting new donations to rebuild its collection.
Still, the process of establishing a new museum remains in limbo pending closure of the Armory insurance claim, according to museum board president John Shaw.
“We have gone through basically two years of procedure while the city is still working on the insurance settlement,” he said. “…They’re getting close, is what I heard in the last report from the City Council meeting.”
During that time, with input from the city council and the public, the museum board has narrowed its search to a few potential historic properties for the main museum, he said. In addition, the board likely will have a presence at the future Gateway Center.
“The city has wanted us to take a position in the Gateway Center all along, since when Erik (Larson) was mayor; and that role has been looked at as an expanded footprint,” said Shaw.
For now, he said, “the city has approved some nuts and bolts and some funding for some equipment, some additional capacity electronically, so we can continue to redocument the collection.”
The current housing and working location is the former Campbell Electric Building on Port Industrial Road in Aberdeen. It’s not open to the public.
Seeking new treasures
Now that a safe, dry place has been secured for temporary operations, the museum board is looking for artifact donations from the community. Quigg’s piano is its latest acquisition.
The rosewood piano was made in the 1850s by W.P. Emerson of Boston. It came to Aberdeen in mid-1870s, when Dr. Isaac Brock Malcolm purchased it as a gift to his daughter, Belle Malcolm Weatherwax, upon the birth of her first child. She and her husband, Carl S. Weatherwax, enjoyed it with their family at 617 N. K St. in Aberdeen.
After Belle’s death in 1952, Dan and Sarah McGillicuddy bought the piano from the estate and moved it into their home at 206 E. Eighth St in Aberdeen. The McGillicuddys were Quigg’s great-aunt and uncle. Quigg says he purchased it from them in 1975 “just to keep it in the family” and moved it into his Hoquiam home.
He had it restored in 2000 and made it the centerpiece of Windermere’s then-new Broadway Street office. He pledged it to the museum shortly after the fire and finally was able to hand it off this past week.
“My idea was just to keep it in the community,” he said. “My kids are all gone, scattered around, and they don’t have room for it in their homes — though they learned how to play the piano on it.”
Still, he never knew its full history until the day Darryl Davis walked into the Windermere office as a customer and noticed the piano.
“He says, ‘I know that piano! Where did you get it?’ I told him, and he says, “Oh, that piano belonged to my great-grandmother, Belle Weatherwax.’ And he told me the whole history,” said Quigg. “I had no idea, and my mother had no idea where it came from, other than Dan and Sarah had bought it at an estate sale.”
After that, he said, members of the Weatherwax family would visit the office every now and then to take pictures of it and maybe play a little tune.
“It is playable,” he said, “though square grand pianos don’t hold a tune very well — especially when I play ’em!”
Got donations?
All potential artifact donations are reviewed by the museum’s board and collections committee to ensure that they fit within the parameters set by the board. For example, items must have a specific history in Aberdeen — not simply be old and interesting.
Once reviewed, all recommendations will go to the Aberdeen City Council for final approval.
“This process can take up to two months, so please be patient,” reads a public statement from Stacie Barnum, director of the Aberdeen Parks Department, under which the museum operates. “It’s important that future of the collection represent Aberdeen’s history and fit within the mission and goals of the artifact collection.”
For information on donating an item or funds, please contact the Parks Department at 360-537-3229. Anyone interested may download the artifact donation form at aberdeenmuseumofhistory.com. Once completed, those forms may be mailed to the Parks Department, 200 E. Market St., Aberdeen WA 98520; or scanned and emailed to Barnum at sbarnum@aberdeenwa.gov.
Also, anyone interested in playing a volunteer role in getting the museum back up and running also may contact Barnum.
“There’s just a pile of stuff that needs to get done over there,” Shaw said, including restoring the three damaged fire trucks and scanning and documenting tens of thousands of photographs salvaged from the Armory.
Dan Hammock | Grays Harbor News Group Some of the artifacts saved from the 2018 fire that swept through the Aberdeen Museum of History, including a plywood boat and an 1855 fire cart, are being stored at a facility on Port Industrial Road as the museum searches for a new home.
Dan Hammock | Grays Harbor News Group Chain saws, rigging and tin hats are among the logging equipment salvaged from the 2018 Aberdeen Museum of History fire.
Dan Hammock | The Daily World Aberdeen Museum Board President John Shaw, left, and Tom Quigg next to the piano originally owned in the late 1800s by Carl S. and Belle Weatherwax. Quigg donated the piano to the museum.
