November 19, 2009: Our Town – OWU

The Chickering piano now resides in Sanborn Hall.

Photo by Linda O’Horo

Chickering Piano Comes Home to Sanborn Hall
A real centennial celebration for Sanborn

The Chickering piano that for decades, resided in the homes of Benjamin and Martha Annette Reed Blanchard Sanborn and several other family members, has now found its new abode in the front lobby of OWU’s Sanborn Hall. This recent  addition to Ohio Wesleyan’s music department is especially welcome, as the university celebrates Sanborn’s centennial anniversary this year. The piano also represents a strong link between the Sanborn family—Benjamin, Martha, and their daughters Anna and Amelia—and their generous monetary support for OWU, in particular, Anna’s gift for the construction of Sanborn Hall.

In a note to Cameron Bennett, chairperson of OWU’s music department, from Elizabeth O’Keefe ’88, she explains that the piano came from the home of Mrs. Sanborn (1822-1907) and her daughter, Anna Sanborn Clason (Class of 1859) who previously had given the piano to O’Keefe’s great-great-grandmother, Belle Cartmell Whetsel. O’Keefe writes that the piano was with the Whetsel family for more than 100 years before it actually came “home” to Sanborn Hall. As O’Keefe shares… “Always adorned with pictures detailing friends’ and family members’ milestones, vacations and gatherings, and dotted with colorful greeting cards wishing health, happiness, and cheer, the piano projected a glow of warmth and welcome… .”

O’Keefe also credits the following family members for their parts in this special gift to OWU: Rebecca M. O’Keefe Shorter, William M. O’Keefe, Leah G. Karshner Whetsel, and the estate of Diana M. Whetsel O’Keefe.

“We were thrilled this past summer to receive the donation of Mrs. Sanborn’s Chickering piano,” says Bennett. “In this 100th anniversary year of Sanborn Hall, it seems that fate intervened and brought this wonderful historical instrument ‘home,’ to our campus. We are so grateful to the Sanborn family for their generosity and are proud to display this beautiful Chickering piano in the front lobby of Sanborn Hall during this centennial anniversary celebration.”

And for O’Keefe, the piano has found its appropriate home.

“It couldn’t be housed in a better place,” she says.

– Pam Besel