Blessing of the bells
Trinity Episcopal Cathedral gets a surprise while refurbishing steeple
Trinity Episcopal Cathedral was ready to rededicate its 10 bells in December, after refurbishing its steeple. Forty trash bags of guano had been cleared out, screens had been put up to keep out the pigeons, the bells had been safely rehung, and a new programmable system to play them had been installed after the 60-yearold electric keyboard had broken the previous year.
After work on the tower was finished, the new superintendent turned his attention to a corner in the basement that had been used as a dumping site for building material. Amid the debris of bags of cement and mortar, Ken Alexander found one crate too heavy to move. He pried open the box, made out of heavy hardwood planks, and found an 11th bell.
It had been made by the same long-closed Meneely Foundry, of Watervliet, N.Y. that manufactured the other 10 bells. As far as anyone knows, it never was in the steeple. Maybe it was supposed to be, but the cathedral staff does not know that, either.
The bell, while smaller than all 10 in the tower, seems to fit the set, a half-step above the current highest pitch. But the church had no records of ever having it, and has been unable, so far, to identify its provenance.
So when the church rededicated the bells Wednesday, Bishop Dorsey McConnell rang the newly found 11th by hand, because church officials still don’t know if it’s part of the original set.
The current best guess, said choirmaster and organist David Schaap, is that it was a locomotive bell. This comes from a representative of Verdin Bells and Clocks, the Cincinnati-based company that set up the new bell controls during the renovation.
“One of the contractors came through to make sure everything was working, and his opinion was that it’s a railroad bell.”
They have a story that fits,