Historic instruments at Lewis & Clark High School
The Lewis & Clark High School 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.
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 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. The 1924 organ was paid for with donations and school district funds.
—Jesse Tinsley The Spokesman-Review
Daniel Nord 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 periodically in need of maintenance and repairs to
keep it in proper playing condition.
—Jesse Tinsley The Spokesman-Review
Cast members of the spring musical rehearse on the stage at Lewis and Clark High School. 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 the massive pipe organ donated in 1924.
—Jesse Tinsley The Spokesman-Review
Daniel Nord 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.
—Jesse Tinsley The Spokesman-Review
Daniel Nord sits at the console 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 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
Spokane Public Schools
History of the LC Pipe Organ & Grand Piano
Please see the LCHS Spokane Public Schools webpage that describes the history of these magnificent musical instruments.
https://www.spokaneschools.org/Page/3622