Congress Bells
*Location:
Old Post Office Tower Nancy Hanks Center 12th Street & Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, D.C., USA LL: N 38.89469, W 77.02755
*Ringers:
Washington Ringing Society Mary Clark, Area Representative T: (703)532-3410 E: josephwc/@/aol/./com
Verify the current ringers' contact(s) at the NAGCR Website.
*Contact:
National Park Service T: (202)523-5691
*Schedule:
Practice Thursday 1900-2100 (meet at tower elevator at 1850)
*Remarks:
The bells were cast in 1976 and were presented to the USA in the same year, but were not installed until this tower was found to be suitable; they were first rung in 1983.
*Technical data:
Ring of 10 bells
Pitch of heaviest bell is D in the middle octave
Transposition is not applicable
Keyboard range: ROPE / NONE
There are no added semitones
The whole instrument was made/installed in 1976-83
with bells made by Whitechapel
Year of latest technical information source is 1991
*Links:
The Washington Ringing Society presents a lot of information about both of the rings in this city.
Stock photo, among the bells; scroll down to find a view from above the bells.
A waymarking page has a photo of the tower plus a photo of the ringing room ceiling, showing the ropes hung on the spider.
Where this work lies in the sequence of output of the Whitechapel bellfoundry, in this region and in the world.
Ranking among all North American rings by pitch/weight.
Ranking among all North American rings by size (number of bells).
Ranking among all North American rings by year of completion.
Ranking among all North American chimes by size (number of bells).
Index to all tower bell instruments in DC.
*Status:
This page was built from the database on 3-May-08 based on textual data last updated on 2008/04/27 and on technical data last updated on 2006/08/18
Explanations of page format and keyboard range are available.
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