ANTIQUE PIANOS PUT SCV HISTORICAL SOCIETY IN TUNE WITH THE PAST.

Byline: Mary Schubert Daily News Staff Writer

If those keys could talk, local historians muse, their stories would likely add a few colorful chapters to valley legend and lore.

Two vintage pianos, one of them riddled with holes that history buffs like to imagine were the result of gunshots in a power plant saloon, have become the recent property - and project - of the Santa Clarita Valley Historical Society.

Historical society members will donate their time and talents to restoring the two pianos, one an upright and the other a square grand style.

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power donated the upright, which had sat for years in a storage room at the DWP's San Francisquito Canyon Power Plant. Now it is kept at Heritage Junction, in the old Saugus train depot.

The Santa Clarita Senior Center donated the square grand to the historical society a few years after somebody had given it them. With its keys yellowed and its stout, ornately carved legs removed, the dust-covered piano sits on its side in the Newhall Ranch House - Heritage Junction's two-story centerpiece, which is undergoing a complete overhaul of its own.

Society member Pat Saletore said she envisions the day when parties will be held in the restored ranch house, and guests will mill about, nibbling hors d'oeuvres as a pianist plays background music on the square grand.

The square grand bears the imprint of the Mathushek Piano Manufacturing Co. of New Haven, Conn., and the model name ``Orchestral'' in flowing script. The company, founded by Frederick Mathushek in 1852, apparently built square grand models in 1870 and 1875, according to the Pierce Piano Atlas, an industry reference book.

The age of the historical society's square grand, however, is unclear. At 80 inches wide and 40 inches deep, the piano's decorative touches include a wooden music stand with detailing reminiscent of ornate wrought-iron railings and, at its base, a carved wooden pedal lyre.

``It has finally found its final resting place,'' historical society member Laurene Weste said. ``It's collectors who want these old pianos, but this is made for playing - and it will again,'' she said. ``I want to sing old-time songs.''

For now, the square grand's keys produce atonal, dissonant sounds that seem oddly appropriate for the ranch house - which, rumor has it, is haunted and these days looks the part. Restorationists have ripped out the house's walls to redo electrical wiring and better fortify the structure, and while that work is in progress, historical society members Joe Powell and Allan Howe will restore the piano there.

Howe, a 79-year-old plumbing contractor, will handle the woodworking elements of the refurbishing job. Powell, whose Chatsworth business repairs, restores and tunes pianos, will focus on getting the strings and keys of the upright and the square grand back in playing shape.

Powell already has removed the keyboard of the upright piano, whose history is murky and ripe for embellishment.

Dan Kott, a DWP safety and training instructor assigned to the San Francisquito Canyon plant, gave the upright to Powell and the historical society. He said the piano had for years been a source of entertainment for workers at the plant's clubhouse, a combination mess hall and recreation room.

The power plant dates to 1917, and in its early years the San Francisquito Canyon was a remote site. Crews who worked there were put up by the DWP in the plant's dormitories, and the clubhouse was their after-work socializing spot.

William Mulholland, the former DWP chief engineer who was the father of the Owens Valley-to-Los Angeles aqueduct, often spent time at the San Francisquito Canyon facility.

``The piano has an interesting history,'' Kott said. ``We have an idea that the (DWP) bought it for our locale here in the 1920s,'' he said.

Powell and Saletore like to believe that Mulholland sought solace at the upright after the St. Francis Dam burst in 1928, and Kott seems willing to go along with part of that theory. ``For all we know, William Mulholland himself might have joined in listening and maybe singing along to the music from that piano,'' he said.

These days, the plant clubhouse is a records storage area. Kott said he and DWP crews were ``getting rid of junk'' when they came upon the upright, which he said still bears a brand name, place and year of manufacture.

``It was in storage for at least 30 years. We realized that the mice and rats had had their way with it. The ivory was coming off the keys,'' he said.

``We just don't have the budget for restoration,'' Kott added. ``We were so happy that the piano could possibly be restored and find a home.''

``The one that belonged to William Mulholland is a wreck. It had a couple of bullet holes in it,'' Powell said.

There are small, circular holes in the upper back portion of the upright, and even a silver slug embedded in one of the holes. A tiny inscription on the slugs reads: ``SUPERBA.''

Ammunition and hardware dealers said they had never heard of a type of bullet called SUPERBA or a hardware product by that name.

Besides, the projectile portion of a bullet generally is free of markings, said Sgt. Bruce Harris, range master at the Sheriff's Department weapons training center. Only the shell casing, left behind when a shot is fired, typically bears the factory inscription of the manufacturer, Harris said.

Chances are, the sergeant said, the SUPERBA lodged in the piano isn't a bullet - even though that would make a nice story.

Meanwhile, Powell said that the upright's cabinetry is probably mahogany and the instrument was ``built like a tank.'' He estimates the piano was built around the turn of the century.

``It's really dirty. I have to clean it up,'' Powell said. ``The keyboard's falling apart. The keys are going to have to be completely redone, but the piano's action is OK,'' he said.

The upright's pedals and strings may have to be replaced. ``If (Kott) hadn't sold me on (the piano's) historical value, I would have said burn it. It's really going to be a lot of work,'' Powell said.

But all the effort could be time well spent.

Del Holland, president of Six Flags Magic Mountain, bought a 150-year-old square grand piano last month at the Santa Clarita Valley Boys & Girls Club charity auction.

``It was made in New York in 1845. That's stamped on the piano itself,'' Holland said. ``It's got a few keys that stick, and it needs some tuning work, but it's got a great sound to it,'' he said.

Senior center volunteer Mabel Hamilton, 82, said she's glad the historical society will refurbish the square grand.

``It's the kind of piano that I took lessons on back in 1925,'' Hamilton said. ``I would sit near it every day (at the senior center). It brought back a lot of old memories.''

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Photo: (1-2--color) Joe Powell, left, and Allan Howe are keyed up to restore this 1870s-era Mathushek square grand piano for the Santa Clarita Valley Historical Society. Legend has it that these holes in the society's other old-time piano, donated by the DWP, came from a gunfight in the 1920s or '30s. The instruments will be displayed at Heritage Junction when restoration is complete.

Terri Thuente/Daily News