The Children's Carillon

The very real possibility of our church having a carillon began with Jean Kesling who wanted to hear the bells in her neighborhood. In 1994, she gave our church $100,000 in her will to be used for building a carillon and this prompted others to contribute to the fund. In October, 1998 the forming of a task force was approved by the Session. Fifteen of us, headed by Dan Lewis, have met monthly and sometimes weekly to study the building of a carillon, listen to experts, meet with architects, and make many decisions.

Many have wondered just why we chose to put the tower in front of the church entrance rather than on the corner of Kingsbury Ave. and Highway 35. That was one of the difficult decisions. Yes, people driving into town on Rt. 35 would see it and know that it was part of our church. However, our architect, Herman Terzino, pointed out that if the tower was located in front it would blend with the present church design conceived by Edward Dart. Another consideration was that the beautiful sounds of the bells would not be competing with those of the traffic. 

Now, through the generous contributions of many of our members and their families, as Dan so aptly put it, "The steel skeleton stands strong against the sky giving a true picture of the size and place of The Children's Carillon".

The scale model of the Carillon pictured above can be seen at the church.

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"Our Carillon Tower as a Candle"

Lighting the Way

      “The Carillon Tower as a Candle.” This is how our architect, Herman Terzino would like people to see the Tower as it beckons towards our church. During our last meeting we discussed the details of lighting with the lighting engineers, Larson-Danielson and Herman.

        Besides the intricacies of conduits, cables, switches, etc. and of course the ever-present budget, there were many other interesting aspects of lighting the tower to be considered. Should there be floodlights from the outside as we have lighted the church? “No,” said Herman. That would detract from the church, but if it is lighted from the inside it would appear more like a candle.

         Why should the lights be below the bells, and not placed high above to shine down upon them? Well, when you realize the largest bells will be at the top with the smaller underneath, it is apparent that those large bells would prevent any light from shining down upon those below. However, lights will be placed in several positions to make sure that all the bells are lighted.

         And just why are the large bells on top? That turned out to be a very intricate question. In a nutshell, if the answer can be thus contained, David Eicher explained that having the larger bells above with their longer linkage makes it easier for the carilloneur to strike them. Also, there is more room for the larger arms of the hammers above. Having the smaller bells down below enables the carilloneur to more easily control the subtle sounds of their ringing.

         So many things to think about. So much yet to do. But, step by step we are progressing, and soon we will be able to look up and admire our Children’s Carillon Tower that has been so long in coming.

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CONSTRUCTION BEGINS!

If you happened by the tower during the first few days, you might have wondered why the brickwork seemed to be going so slowly. At one point men were conferring and looking down at what would become the foot of the tower. Was something wrong? What could they be talking about?

Well, what they were doing was examining the dimensions of the walls, especially the corners. The base pattern, or footprint, is one of the most important parts of the building. If the first layer isn’t exactly right, nothing above will fit. Not the windows, not the structure for the bells, nothing! Our architect had made a template of the inside corner which then can be used for the footprint and as the tower goes up.

 

So that the bricks will match the template one of the workmen could be found outside the Sunday School rooms busily sawing many individual bricks. These were then taken up to the building site to be used for the corners.

 

 

 

 

Look up!!! Before the tower is enclosed, take a moment to look up at the framework. Right now you can see the cross beams onto which the framework of the bells will be tied. Between the cabin, where the Carilloneur will sit at the keyboard, and the roof, there are four levels. Here is where our 36 bells will hang, with the six largest on the top level down to the 12 smallest right above the cabin.