Shanahan Carillon 

*Location:

   Carillon Wall / Shepherd's Gate
   Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels (RC)
   West Temple Street at North Grand Ave.
   Los Angeles, California, USA
   LL: N 34.05720, W 118.24501

   Mission San Fernando Rey
   15151 San Fernando Mission Boulevard
   Mission Hills
   San Fernando, California, USA

   St.Monica's Church (RC)
   715 California
   Santa Monica, California, USA

Site locator map

*Contact:

   Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels
   555 West Temple Street
   Los Angeles, CA  90012-2707
   T: 213-680-5200
   E: info@olacathedral.org
      music@olacathedral.org

*Schedule:

   (unknown)

*Remarks:

   Upper 35 bells were cast in 1931 by
   Felix Van Aerschodt & Marcel Michiels,
   the gift of Mrs. Johanna Shanahan of
   Santa Monica.  In 1955, Justin
   Kramer replaced both drum and baton
   keyboard with electric autoplay.
   That installation was dismantled in
   1971 because of earthquake damage
   to the tower; the bells were later sold
   to Mission San Fernando, where they
   were played by an electric automatic
   system.  Now includes a bass bell cast
   by Michiels in 1929 for Hearst Castle,
   but never installed there; it hung at
   St.Timothy's Catholic Church in LA from
   1956 until moved here in 2002.
   Also 4 bells in campanile (with space
   for more), 2 from former cathedral
   (by McShane, 1888, 3000# & 1500#) and
   2 from closed churches in the diocese.

*Technical data:

   Electric-automatic carillon of 36 bells
   Pitch of heaviest bell is G  in the middle octave
   Keyboard range:     ----  /    ----  
   Transposition is not applicable
   There are three missing bass semitones
   The instrument was enlarged in 2002
     with bells made by Michiels         
   Prior history:
     In 1931, the instrument was begun with 35 bells
       by vanAerschodt    
       Pitch of heaviest bell was A  in the middle octave
       Keyboard range was:     C C   /    C G   
       Transposition was up  9 semitone(s), i.e., from C to A 
       There were two missing bass semitones
   No auxiliary mechanisms known
   Tower details not available
   Year of latest technical information source is 2004

On the Cathedral Website, there is a descriptive page with a history of the instrument; the photo is clickable for a larger version.  Curiously, not all of the bells are pictured; to see them all, look here (20) and here (14 of 16 visible).  Note that none of the carillon bells are in the campanile, which contains half a dozen assorted bells from elsewhere.
There is also a page about the campanile and its four bells.

A client testimonial to the installer of the current control system for both sets of bells has some information, but the claim of a "six-ton dedication bell" is unconfirmed.

A 1931 newspaper article tells about the original installation in Santa Monica.

Where this work lies in the sequence of output of the Van Aerschodt bellfoundry, in this region and in the world.

Ranking among all North American non-traditional carillons by weight.
Ranking among all North American non-traditional carillons by size (number of bells).
Ranking among all North American non-traditional carillons by year of completion.

Index to all tower bell instruments in CA.

   This page was built from the database on 10-Mar-26
   based on textual data last updated on 2026/03/10
   and on technical data last updated on 2004/07/24