Memorial Church Bell Cracked

The cast bronze bell hanging in Memorial Church’s belfry will be indefinitely out of commission after cracking during the announcement of morning prayers on Thursday.

The crack was discovered when church staff called in professionals after noticing a change in the sound of the more than 65 year-old bell, which typically chimes at the start of every hour between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m.

The experts told church staff that the bell cannot be easily repaired and suggested that it be sent to Pennsylvania to be reheated in an attempt to remove the crack, according to Memorial Church Epps Fellow Nathaniel P. Katz. If that effort is unsuccessful, the professionals suggested that the bell be melted down and eventually recast.

Katz said that the Church is considering installing a speaker to replace the bell’s hourly tolls in the interim period.

The two-ton bell was cast by the Taylor Bell foundry in 1926 and donated to the University in the 1930s by former University President A. Lawrence Lowell, Class of 1877, according to previous articles in The Crimson. Honoring students who died in World War I, its inscription reads, "In memory of voices that are hushed."

Since the bell’s installation, it has suffered a number of minor problems. In the 1970s, the clapper broke off and landed on the steps of Widener Library. The clapper broke free again in 1990, landing on a lower section of the church’s steeple, according to a story in The Crimson.

The late Peter J. Gomes, former Plummer Professor of Christian Morals and Pusey Minister at Memorial Church, told The Crimson in 2006 that bells have a long history at Harvard that originates from the traditional use of bells at Oxford and Cambridge University to keep time.

"Christians have used bells for thousands of years. Time in western Christian civilization was a Christian concept. Days were marked by prayers," he said.

—Staff writer Justin C. Worland can be reached at jworland@college.harvard.edu.