*Location:

   St.James Catholic Church
   South Wabash Avenue near 29th Street
   Chicago, Illinois, USA
   LL: N 41.84091, W 87.62542

Site locator map

*Player:

   (unknown)

*Contact:

   St.James Rectory
   2942 South Wabash Avenue
   Chicago, IL  60616-3227
   T: (312)842-1919   F: (312)842-3612
   E: FrEdward@StJamesOnWabash.com

*Schedule:

   Was unused, and almost unplayable.

*Remarks:

   Chimestand originally had pedals for
   all "white" notes (C G 12); probably
   removed when an organ builder added
   electro-pneumatic auxiliary action which
   operates through chimestand,from an
   independent 2-octave keyboard attached
   to the organ console.
   This is the heaviest and second-largest
   American-made chime, besides being
   one of only three such that are
   fully chromatic.
   June 2013:  Church being demolished;
   bells reportedly in storage.

*Technical data:

   Chime-sized instrument (without any workable playing mechanism) of 20 bells
   Pitch of heaviest bell is C  in the middle octave
   Transposition is nil (concert pitch)
   Keyboard range:     C G   /    C -- 1
   There are no missing bass semitones
   There is no practice console
   The whole instrument was installed in 1895
     with bells made by McShane     
   Auxiliary mechanisms: nCIW1 
   Tower details: 
     Height of console:                 15 meters above ground
     Height of lowest level of bells:   24 meters above ground
     Height of highest level of bells:  26 meters above ground
     Belfry openness:  75%
   Year of latest technical information source is 2013

The former church Website (retrieved from a 2007 archive) has a photo of the tower on the home page.  The History page (under Parish Life) mentions the installation of the bells, both in the chronological outline and in the text below.

Description of the organ; in the Notes section are my comments on the chime mechanism.
Photo of the electric keyboard, which formerly slid out from under the right side of the organ console.

Where this work lies in the sequence of output of the McShane bellfoundry.

Other chimes which qualify as mini-carillons.

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.

Index to all tower bell instruments in IL.

   This page was built from the database on  3-Mar-22
   based on textual data last updated on 2022/02/28
   and on technical data last updated on 2013/10/02