QUINCY : USA - IL

   Arethusa Helen Woodruff Memorial Chime

*Location:

   St.John's Episcopal Church
     (Episcopal Synod of America, ECUSA)
   Hampshire Street at North 7th Street
   Quincy, Illinois, USA
   LL: N 39.93335, W 91.40447

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*Player:

   (none)

*Contact:

   St.John's Church
   701 Hampshire Street
   Quincy, IL  62301-3013
   T: (217)224-7856   F: (217)224-7472
   E: stjohns@stjohnsquincy.com
      holysmoke1@hotmail.com
   - or -
   Kirby Eber, Organist
   E: kirbyeber@hotmail.com

*Schedule:

   (none; not playable)

*Remarks:

   Added semitones sharp 4th & flat 7th.
   Originally double action; secondary
   action and clappers probably removed
   when bells were rehung on steel frame
   many years ago.
   The body of the church was destroyed
   by fire in August 2002; the tower was
   damaged, but the bells and chimestand
   survived; church and lower part of
   tower were promptly restored.
   Mar.2008: Project begun to restore
   chime with original chimestand.

*Technical data:

   Chime-sized instrument (without any workable playing mechanism) of 11 bells
   Pitch of heaviest bell is E  in the middle octave
   Transposition is nil (concert pitch)
   Keyboard range:     E F#  /    NONE  
   There are two added semitones
   The whole instrument was installed in 1905
     with bells made by Vanduzen    
   Year of latest technical information source is 1992

*Links:

The church Website has a tiny sketch of the building on the splash page.  The home page has a photo showing the back of the sanctuary, with a new spiral stair to the middle level of the tower; the chimestand used to be there, but was accessed from an old stair in the base of the tower, the large opening having been closed off and forgotten many decades ago.  The History page has a paragraph about the bells; curiously, it attributes their origin to Vanduzen & Tift, though the name of the proprietors of the Buckeye Bell Foundry had changed nine years before this chime was installed.  (See the foundry history for details.)  In the Pictures section, the "before the fire" page has three exterior photos; two more can be found on the "destruction" page; and the two construction pages have several photos detailing the discovery and redevelopment of the large arch between the nave and the middle level of the tower.

Where this work lies in the sequence of output of the Vanduzen bellfoundry.

Ranking among all North American chimes by size (number of bells).

Index to all tower bell instruments in IL.

*Status:

   This page was built from the database on 25-Mar-08
   based on textual data last updated on 2008/03/14
   and on technical data last updated on 2006/10/30

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