The History of The Bell

In October, Head of School Peter Becker visited The Governor’s Academy, the oldest boarding school in New England, where he noticed the 1820 Parsons Schoolhouse Bell on display. It reminded him of The Frederick Gunn School bell, in the cupola above Gunn House, which still rang regularly when he arrived on campus in 2012. Curious to know more, Becker and Associate Head of School Seth Low P’26 ventured into the attic of Gunn to take a closer look at the bell and the machine once used to operate it. They asked us to dive into the archives to learn more about the history of the bell.

From The Biography of Frederick Gunn, we know that Mr. Gunn had a fascination with bells. In the chapter Early Life and Struggles, U.S. Senator Orville Platt, who was a student of Mr. Gunn’s at Washington Academy, recounted: “The custom, long honored in New England villages, of ringing the church-bell on the occasion of weddings, was thought to be undignified, and it was solemnly voted in Society meeting that it should be discontinued. But no matter how securely the church and bell-tower were hid away, when the hour for the wedding came the bell would ring … The people were sure that no one but ‘Fred’ Gunn could be the author of the ingenious schemes devised to thwart the august will of the Society and shock the village propriety.”

Adam Korpalski’s book, The Gunnery, 1850-1975, includes another account from Charley Goodyear, Class of 1861, who recalled that when Mr. Gunn was a young teacher at Washington Academy, he “delighted in telling of his escapades while in college” at Yale University. In one such escapade, Mr. Gunn said he and his friends “found the largest old sow in New Haven, lifted her by block and tackle into the belfry of the chapel and tied her there so that whenever she moved she rang the bell; we took the block and tackle away and left to the faculty the problem of how to get her down.”

It is not surprising, then, to learn that a bell was rung to wake Mr. Gunn’s students in the earliest days of his school. “The rising bell was the signal for a merry shouting which sounded from room to room and roused the sleepiest. Every day was begun in this way,” James P. Platt, Class of 1868, wrote in The Biography of Frederick Gunn, in the chapter, The Home-Life.

From The Stray Shot in 1885, we learned more about this particular tradition: “The person who rings the rising bell in the morning, has been assisted in her efforts this term, by a young drummer, who beats his ‘Single Drag’ at the first tap of the bell, and continues as long as the bell rings. This seems to have the desired effect, as very few now are in danger of over-sleeping unless they are physically unable, which is sometimes the case. On behalf of the school, we extend a vote of thanks to our young friend for his kind services, as the drum is more effective than the bell alone ever was. We have found from sad experience, that the gratitude we owe him amounts to something at the end of a week.”

In her book, Gunnery Stories, the late Paula Gibson Krimsky, longtime Gunn archivist, further noted: “The Gunnery boys assisted in ringing the church bells at St. John’s Episcopal, the Congregational Church, and the Swedish church as well as at The Gunnery from 4:30 a.m. to 7:00 a.m. on November 11th,” signaling the end of World War I in 1918. “After a church service, they celebrated at a bonfire at Wykeham Rise with hymns and patriotic songs.”

These descriptions do not reveal where the bell at the Old Gunnery was located, but a photograph from 1928 shows that it was mounted outside, in a simple wood frame on the roof of the building, and rung with a rope that could be pulled from ground level. A small photograph and an illustration in the 1928 Red and Gray yearbook confirms this configuration.

Correspondence between third Head of School William Hamilton Gibson, Jr., Class of 1902, and Richard Henry Dana, Jr., the architect who designed the buildings around the Quad, makes clear the bell was preserved when the Old Gunnery was torn down in 1928. “In regard to the bell, you will note that I have asked the wreckers to remove this. Could not Mr. Perry arrange to take care of this, where in connection with the small dormitory outside of the Old Gunnery building. I am looking into the matter of putting this bell in a cupola, and having it electronically operated from different points,” Dana wrote to Gibson in January 1928.

In a reply, Gibson explained that gift of $1,000 from Randolph Bolles P’31 would be used to install the bell in the Gunn House cupola, along with a clock made by Seth Thomas Clock Company in Thomaston, Connecticut, and an electrical apparatus to “govern the bells and the whole schedule of the school,” made by the International Time Recording Company, which later became part of IBM.

“Could you get for me the diameter of the bell and how it is moved; whether it is struck, or does the bell revolve and the tongue strike?” Dana inquired. “Could you also give me a tentative program of what is required: such as, the time it should be rung in the morning, at noon and in the evening? This is necessary to work out the program. Is there any point in having it strike any particular number of times at any of these periods? This could be arranged, such as two strokes for meals, and three for class or chapel, etc.”

By October 1928, Gibson reported back to Dana: “the bell system as governed by the time clock is working beautifully and will operate very distinctly for greater efficiency within the school.”

The bell also signaled times of celebration, including a New Year’s Eve gathering for the school and town that was inaugurated by Mr. Gunn and carried on for more than a century. An issue of the Stray Shot published in February 1905 contains a reference to the “time-honored custom of watching out the old year at The Gunnery” at an event that included refreshments, song, a military march, prayer, “and on the stroke of twelve The Gunnery bell rang. The usual hand-shaking and New Year’s greetings closed what all pronounced the best time we have ever had.”

According to an article published in the Sunday Republican in December 1966, then-Head of School Ogden D. Miller Sr. H’69, P’50 ’54 ’55 GP’84 and his wife, Anne, hosted the 117th traditional New Year’s Eve party on December 31 in Browne Memorial Dining Hall. “For the 62nd consecutive year, Anthony Olin will ring The Gunnery bells at midnight, heralding the New Year. The bell ringing has been a highlight of the annual gathering for the local townspeople,” the newspaper said, noting that “Ant” Olin, as he was known, was in charge of The Gunnery’s grounds, and the playing fields in particular, under five of the school’s six heads. Following his retirement, he was named Superintendent of Buildings and Grounds emeritus.

The bell also signaled times of celebration, including a New Year’s Eve gathering for the school and town that was inaugurated by Mr. Gunn and carried on for more than a century.

“The ringing of the bells will also signal the 21st anniversary of Headmaster and Mrs. Miller’s coming to The Gunnery,” the paper reported that year.

In an article about the bell published in the Bulletin in fall 2015, Krimsky said, “Mark Lowell ’74 wrote in to say that he and some friends stole into the bell tower and rang the bell for 30 minutes when the Vietnam War ended.”

According to Krimsky, the bell was refurbished during the renovation of Gunn House for the school’s sesquicentennial in

2000, and for a time rang daily at the start of the first class. She credited Bruce Block of the school’s Maintenance Department with getting “the old mechanism to work in 2006,” but due to its age, the apparatus was ultimately deemed unreliable.

Becker was uncertain of when or why the bell stopped ringing. “I don’t think we’ll use the bell regularly again (although we could),” he said in October, “and propose instead that we mount it somewhere public and use it on special occasions. Mike March P’23 ’24 has talked about a ‘victory bell.’ The machine would look great in the future school Gunn museum.”