Historic instruments at Lewis & Clark High School

The 1912 building, the oldest in the Spokane Public Schools system, is home to two remarkable musical gifts, a Steinway grand piano and a 1924 pipe organ that is among the largest in the city.

Section:Gallery

Fri., Feb. 8, 2019

George Scott, associate professor of music at Washington State College, is seated at the console of the pipe organ at Lewis and Clark High School on on May 6, 1953. He played background music for “Panorama Musicale,” a historical pageant to be presented during the Greater Spokane Music Festival.
Robert Kee, fellow of the American Guild of Organists, is shown at the console of Lewis and Clark high school’s rebuilt organ in 1966.

Glen L. Whitely Whitley Studio
Lewis and Clark High School band teacher Dan Nord looks over the pipes of the Austin Organ Co. pipe organ installed in lofts above the historic school’s auditorium on Jan. 31. The 1924 organ was paid for with donations and school district funds.

Jesse Tinsley The Spokesman-Review
Daniel Nord, the band teacher at Lewis and Clark High School in Spokane, climbs around the thousands of pipes of the 1924 pipe organ installed in the loft of the historic LCHS auditorium. The instrument was restored in 1979 and updated with electronic controls in the early 2000s when it was reinstalled following the renovation of the school. The Austin and Co. organ is in need of some repairs before it is playable again.

Jesse Tinsley The Spokesman-Review
Cast members of the spring musical rehearse on the stage at Lewis and Clark High School on Jan. 30. The elegant auditorium is the center for the performing arts at the school, which originally opened in 1912. Hidden behind the gratings of the loft windows is a massive pipe organ donated in 1924.

Jesse Tinsley The Spokesman-Review
Daniel Nord, the band teacher at Lewis and Clark High School in Spokane, climbs around the thousands of pipes of the 1924 pipe organ installed in a darkened loft room of the historic LCHS auditorium Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2019. The instrument was restored in 1979 and updated with electronic controls in the early 2000s when it was reinstalled following the renovation of the school. The Austin Organ Co. organ is in need of some repairs before it is playable again. Jesse Tinsley/THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW

Jesse Tinsley The Spokesman-Review
Daniel Nord, the band teacher at Lewis and Clark High School in Spokane, climbs a ladder and moves a ceiling hatch in a storage room to gain access to the thousands of pipes of the 1924 pipe organ installed in the loft of the historic LCHS auditorium. The instrument was restored in 1979 and updated with electronic controls in the early 2000s when it was reinstalled following the renovation of the school. The Austin Organ Co. organ is now in need of some repairs before it is fully playable again.

Jesse Tinsley The Spokesman-Review
Daniel Nord, the band teacher at Lewis and Clark High School in Spokane, sits at the consold of the school’s pipe organ which controls thousands of pipes of the 1924 pipe organ installed in the loft of the historic LCHS auditorium. The instrument was restored in 1979 and updated with electronic controls in the early 2000s when it was reinstalled following the renovation of the school. The Austin Organ Co. instrument is in need of some repairs before it is reliably playable again. The console sits in the corner of storage space in the wings of the school’s theater.

Jesse Tinsley The Spokesman-Review
Pianist Holly Haupt Porter plays the 1911 Steinway Model D piano for vocal music director Jeffrey Boen and the Frontiersmen, Lewis and Clark’s men’s choir, at a March 2018 concert at the school. The piano was a gift from the class of 1912.

Jesse Tinsley The Spokesman-Review