CAMBRIDGE - CC : USA - MA

*Location:

   Christ Church in Cambridge (Episcopal)
   Zero Garden Street
   Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
   LL: N 42.37542, W 71.12048

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*Player:

   (unknown)

*Contact:

   Julie Smith
   55 Chester Street
   Newton Highlands, MA  02461-1433
   H: (617)244-9599
   - or -
   Stuart Forster,
     Director of Music and Organist
   E: stuartforster@cccambridge.org
   - or -
   Christ Church
   Zero Garden Street
   Cambridge, MA  02138-3656
   T: (617)876-0200   F: (617)876-0201

*Schedule:

   (unknown)

*Remarks:

   Bells by "Wm.Blake Founder, for H N
   Hooper, Boston"

*Technical data:

   Chime with Ellacombe stand of 13 bells
   Pitch of heaviest bell is D  in the middle octave
   Transposition is nil (concert pitch)
   Keyboard range:     D G   /    NONE  
   The arrangement of tones and semitones is unknown.
   The whole instrument was installed in 1860
     with bells made by Hooper/Blake
   Year of latest technical information source is 1991

*Links:

The church Website has a sketch of the tower in all page headings.  A History page describes the evolution of the building, and the bells are mentioned on the Architecture page (under "About").

A sketch by Winslow Homer for Harper's Weekly magazine, 5/26/1860, p.324, shows the chime set up in the foundry.  The layout of the frame, together with the bell wheels, makes clear that Hooper designed the instrument as an octave of swinging bells plus five small bells hung dead, all playable from a taut-rope rack on the top platform.

Where this work lies in the sequence of output of the Hooper/Blake bellfoundry.

Ranking among all North American chimes by size (number of bells).
Ranking among all North American chimes by weight (pitch).
Ranking among all North American chimes by year of completion.

Why this chime was a milestone in North American chime history (1860).

Index to all tower bell instruments in MA.

*Status:

   This page was built from the database on 26-Dec-11
   based on textual data last updated on 2009/11/03
   and on technical data last updated on 2001/12/12

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