Christ Church Bell

One of our latest projects at the Oyster Bay Historical Society is sorting through the impressive collection of records recently donated to us by the Christ Episcopal Church. There will be more to come on this collection, but for now I would like to write about the bell that resides at the tower of the Church. Thankfully my job here is made easier by the fact that there was documentation collected and preserved by the folks at Christ Church.

One document reads: “The bell was made for Christ Church by the I T Verdin Company in Cincinnati, Ohio whose bell foundry is located in Holland. The bell is a cast bronze bell with the musical note of “C sharp”. The bell was shipped from Rotterdam (the second-largest city in the Netherlands and the largest port in Europe*) on the [ship] The New England Scout on February 29th, 1976. It took between 30 and 45 days for the bell to arrive, ready for installation. The inscription on the bell is: “Christ Church – Oyster Bay – 1976”.

The I T Verdin Company has installed 35,000 cast bronze church bells in towers throughout the world. As they put so elegantly on their web site: “For centuries, church bells have played a prominent role in the history of countries, communities, and places of worship throughout the world. Historically, church bells have served as timekeepers, used to mark the hour for work, prayer and community gatherings. The church bells of today often ring to commemorate occasions and events. The impact of melodious cast bronze church bells is timeless.”

*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotterdam accessed August 16, 2011.
**http://www.verdin.com/ accessed August 16, 2011.

Images courtesy of the Oyster Bay Historical Society - Christ Church Collection