Allegro Takes Its Music Into Historic Homes
Allegro’s “Music in Historic Homes” series opens the doors of another of Spokane’s remarkable houses to music and a tour next Monday.
This event takes place in a home I have been by countless times over the years. I have surmised from the exterior activity that great things were going on there, and that has turned out to be true.
The home in question is on the corner of Grand Boulevard and Manito Place. Owner George French has put a lot into the Grecian revival with the big white columns over the past couple of years, and his restoration efforts are impressive.
The home, across from Manito Park, was built in 1906 for Daniel Morgan, a vice president for Fred G. Grinnell Real Estate. It was designed by Harold C. Whitehouse, who also designed St. John’s Cathedral. The $50,000 Morgan spent on the home was not enough to finish the third floor, which was originally intended to be a ballroom.
Hearing French describe what he started with in the house while walking through the nearly finished project gave me a great deal of hope that these things can be finished. French said, “You just have to do one thing at a time and do it well.”
Obstacles that French encountered included the interior paint scheme of yellow, pink and blue, including the floors. The house was split into apartments. There was textured plaster and an entire stairway to replace. Huge columns out front were rotted. That’s enough to make a strong man buy a condo.
But not George French. And he has not just done a surface make-over either. Incredible details from fantastic fresco work on the ceilings to columns out of Honduras mahogany are faithful to the Greek-revival style. Appropriate antiques (“not just any old Victorian froufrou will do”) and statuary complete the atmosphere.
French is a Southern gentleman who has definite opinions about what fits the house, but he also knows where to draw the line. “I DO NOT,” he says, “pick out any paper or drapes.” He has found people to entrust with those duties.
French will host the tour of his home, and if it is anything close to the tour I got, the musicians will get a run for their money in the entertainment department. But he is serious and respectful of the process as well, offering that “I don’t own this house. We don’t own anything. We just borrow it for a few years and try to take care of it.”
Beverly Biggs, one of Allegro’s directors, admits, “Some high percentage of the people who come to these events go to see the house. They are interested in historic homes or have older homes themselves, and they want to see what others are doing and that there is an end in sight.”
Along with Allegro’s other director, David Dutton, on oboe, and young flutist Marisa Neste, Biggs will play fortepiano for a “Solo de Concert” by Verroust and a couple of movements from Salieri’s 1774 Concerto for Flute and Oboe. Varroust was an oboe teacher at the Paris Conservatoire who wrote this solo for a student competition, and Salieri was famous as a teacher, a composer and the guy who didn’t poison Mozart.
The event includes the musical performance, refreshments and a tour of the home.
xxxx CONCERT Allegro’s “Music in Historic Homes” will be held at 242 E. Manito Place on Monday with sittings at 5, 6, 7 and 8 p.m. Tickets are $12.50, available by calling 455-6865.