The Dana-Barton Carillon

*Location:

   St.Mark's Episcopal Church
   Oenoke Ridge at Gerrish Lane
   New Canaan, Connecticut, USA
   LL: N 41.15234, W 73.49859

Site locator map

*Carillonist:

   Marietta Storm Douglas
   8 South Street
   Cos Cob, CT  06807-1618
   H: 203-625-9449
   E: Mlette_97@yahoo.com

*Contact:

   St.Mark's Church
   111 Oenoke Ridge
   New Canaan, CT  06840-4105
   T: 203-966-4515   F: 203-966-0439
   E: churchoffice@stmarksnewcanaan.org

*Schedule:

   Before & after Sunday services;
   summer series 1930 Tue in July (guests)

*Remarks:

   Two swinging bells are keyboard D and
   F, and are below the keyboard level;
   playing & practice keyboards were made
   in Princeton.
   Meneely chime was probably in tower of
   the previous church building on West
   Street (dates not known); 5 of its
   bells (G#,A#,C#,D#,F) are now in the
   Priory Church of Saint Mary and
   Saint Louis, Saint Louis Abbey,
   Mason Road, Town and Country,
   St.Louis County, Missouri, where they
   were installed under the supervision
   of Prof. Arthur Bigelow.

*Technical data:

   Traditional carillon of 30 bells
   Pitch of heaviest bell is D# in the middle octave
   Keyboard range:     C G   /    C F   
   Transposition is up  3 semitone(s), i.e., from C to D#
   There are two missing bass semitones
   There is a practice console
   The instrument was enlarged in 1965
     with 10 bells made by Paccard      
   Prior history:
     In 1962, the instrument was begun with 20 bells
       by Paccard     
       (20 bells remain from that work.)
       Pitch of heaviest bell was unknown
     In 1948, a complete instrument of 13 bells was installed
       by Meneely/Wvlt
       (0 bells remain from that work.)
   Auxiliary mechanisms: S2    
   Tower details: 
     Height of console:                 25 meters above ground
     Height of lowest level of bells:   22 meters above ground
     Height of highest level of bells:  33 meters above ground
     Belfry openness:  95%
   Year of latest technical information source is 1991

The church Website has a partial photograph of the tower among the many which rotate through the center of the home page.  The majority of the carillon is located in the belfry at the top.  Two swinging basses are located behind the perforations in the brickwork below, while the carillon keyboard is between the belfry and those two basses.  Access to the open-based tower is from the balcony of the church.
The Music section of the Website includes an Organ and Carillon page, as well as a downloadable MP3 file.  (But that file was missing as of Apr.06, and the recording is actually only of the two swinging bells.)  At the end of the last paragraph about this carillon is a link to an excellent full page about carillons in general.
A History page, in the Welcome section, includes a photo of the previous building, which housed the Meneely chime.  There is also a link to a Construction Pictures page (missing as of Apr.06); the previous version had a photo of some of the bells before installation.
An Architecture and Campus Map page (also in the Welcome section) fails to mention the tower, and does not include the promised map.

A Web page on Connecticut Carillons (archived in 2003) has brief descriptions of 10 of the 11 carillons in this state, with thumbnail photos linked to larger JPEG files.

Where the initial phase of this work lies in the sequence of output of the Meneely (Watervliet) bellfoundry.
Where the second phase of this work lies in the sequence of output of the Paccard bellfoundry, in this region and in the world.
Where the final phase of this work lies in the sequence of output of the Paccard bellfoundry, in this region and in the world.

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

Other small carillons with similar keyboard ranges.

Why the original chime of this institution was a milestone in North American chime history (1948).

Index to all traditional carillons in CT.

Index to all tower bell instruments in CT.

   This page was built from the database on 14-Oct-24
   based on textual data last updated on 2020/08/15
   and on technical data last updated on 2015/07/20