The University Bell Tower is the tallest structure on the Bluff. At nine a.m. (the beginning of whose day?) the bells begin to strike, dividing the working hours in stately, measured stages. Standing tall, the Tower recalls the words of the Alma Mater, ‘high over the Willamette, the spires of learning reach up to the sky’. The Bell Tower Plaza includes the rosary labyrinth, the Marian Garden, and the Marian Grotto. The brick work harmonizes with The Chapel of Christ the Teacher; and the two crosses, atop the lantern of the Chapel and the cupola of the Bell Tower, were designed as siblings, not identical twins but with resemblance and echoes in each design. Because, of course, one of the purposes of the fourteen bells (baptized and dedicated in the names of saints, Blessed Basil Moreau, CSC the largest of the bells) is to ring out the call to prayer and celebration.
The earliest campus plans show that, in 1927, those optimistic campus dreamers place an ambitious Gothic Church with belfry and bells at the apex of the school plant. Similarly, the sketch plans for campus growth in 1958 picture a bell tower centering the grounds. Neither of these concepts were realized. But while tower-dreams were delayed, bells (sort of) arrived in 1948.
The University was gifted with a carillon in 1948. The central working mechanism and console were installed in Music Hall; the speakers were housed atop Education Hall (both single story buildings). The broadcast sounds tolling the hours and traditional calls to prayer were generated manually by a cadre of volunteer players. Following several years of fundraising by the University Mothers’ Club, an automated mechanism fully programable for hymns and melodies — and the hourly chimes — was supplied in 1952.
All this was lost on April 18, 1969 when a late night fire razed Education and Music Halls and five other wooden structures housing classrooms and academic departments in the area where Mago Hunt Center is located today. After the loss of Music and Education Halls, and so the bell mechanism and speakers, the University was able to purchase a Coronation Carillon 25-bell system thanks to a dedicated donor. This mechanism was installed in St. Mary’s in 1969, with speakers attached and visible on the roof. The Coronation Carillon offered over 200 musical selections ranging from modern tunes to church hymns programmed on paper cylinders, similar to a player piano or music box. The University President at the time, Rev. Paul Waldschmidt, CSC, was the master operator and selected musical pieces to fit the season or occasion.
In the mid-80’s, the bells were again quiet for a period. Presuming the system was broken, Rev. Joseph Corpora, CSC, Director of Volunteer Services, investigated the inner workings of the machine and discovered it was simply unplugged and unregretted! — The notion that some might find speakers blaring hourly bell chimes to be annoying carried simply forward to the real bells when the Bell Tower was constructed in 2009. The Beacon records several letters of complaint at the continual disruptions, and student government ran a survey to gauge student concerns. Ultimately too few students responded to warrant a formal resolution and the matter dropped, though accommodations were implemented to dampen the bell sounds and limit Bell Tower operations to 9:00 a.m. – 10:00 p.m.
The Bell Tower has endured the petty controversies. And is today no more an object of confusion, become instead a singular advantage of UP; at night, lighted like a beacon, during the day, tolling the hours, it stands prominent and a symbol of our aspirations, going forward, rooted in Catholic traditions and practices.
Related PortLog Article:
The Bells Are Ringing
Digital Collections:
Chapel of Christ the Teacher, Bell Tower and Marian Garden
Source material:
University Chimes: For Whom the Bell Tolls, The Beacon, October 25, 1963
Letter to the Editor from Louis Artau, Dean of Music, 1947-1956, The Beacon, February 21, 1964
Carillon Caresses UP Ears, The Beacon, February 19, 1971
Waldschmidt Solely Responsible, The Beacon, January 19, 1973
Fr. Waldschmidt Rings the University’s Chimes, The Beacon, November 18, 1976
Bells Ring Across Campus, The Beacon, September 24, 1987
