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It’s a homecoming 100 years in the making.
The folky tunes of an extremely rare piano will once again sound in Manhattan Friday — nearly a century after Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia banned the instruments from the city streets.
A 127-year-old barrel piano is making a visit to the Italian American Museum for a special historic presentation on what was once an instrument ubiquitous on Big Apple streets.
“This is a great homecoming not just for a musical instrument, but for the history of an entire ethnic group,” said Tony Gangi, the piano’s current owner.
“I am delighted to no end that it will be reunited with the city of its birth for a day.”
The piano’s visit marks the first time it has been in the Big Apple since 1899 — when it was manufactured on Chambers Street by Caesar Maserati, one of the most prolific builders of barrel pianos and organs of the time.
Legendary street performer Marino Persechini owned the instrument for his seven-decade career — and was well-known for toting it throughout Boston and sharing his music throughout the city streets until his retirement in 1974.
Organ-grinders — also known as hurdy-gurdy men — like Persechini were mostly Italian immigrants who moved to the US in hopes of achieving the American Dream, and the instruments soon became synonymous with the Italian-American identity.
“These instruments provided a way for them to make money where they didn’t have to answer to a discriminatory employer and they could kind of make it on their own. And unfortunately, a real stereotype developed: the stereotype of the Italian-American immigrant,” Gangi explained to The Post.
LaGuardia was once reportedly taunted by a man during his teenage years in Arizona, calling the future politician an ethnic slur and asking: “Where’s your monkey?”
He later, in 1935, refused to renew licenses for street organ grinders and barrel piano players in the Big Apple, citing panhandling and traffic obstruction, a move that effectively banned the culture from the city.
The ban was in effect until it was lifted by Mayor John V. Lindsay in 1970, but the effects were irreversible to a once-thriving industry.
“In a lot of ways, the ban did a lot of damage because nobody is making instruments like this in the United States, unfortunately,” Gangi said.
Even the surviving instruments are in bad shape, and even antique dealers aren’t well-versed in the history of barrel pianos.
Gangi and his wife, Suzanne, will tell the story of the Persechini, the piano and LaGuardia as part of the special presentation at the museum at 6 p.m. Friday.
For just one day, its music will fill the halls of the Italian American Museum — and visitors are encouraged to play the keys once operated by the legendary musician.
“We are grateful to be hosting the Gangis and this magnificent instrument,” said Dr. Joseph V. Scelsa, founder and president of the Italian American Museum.
“It’s an element of our culture that epitomizes the struggles of Italian American immigrants, but also their desire to share many aspects of that culture in their new homeland.”