*Location:

   City Hall Bell Tower
   North Frontage Road at Third Street
   City Hall
   Fall River, Massachusetts, USA
   LL: N 41.70074, W 71.15381

   old city hall tower

Site locator map

*Player:

   (none)

   1910-23 Edmund Bottomley (1877-1944)
   1923-xx Charles Letendre, Jr.

*Contact:

   Mayor's Office
   One Government Center
   Fall River, MA  02722
   T: 508-324-2600
   E: mayor@fallriverma.gov
   - or -
   508-324-2000 [General Information]

*Schedule:

   (unknown)

*Remarks:

   Gift of Samuel Watson in memory of his
   wife, Betty Rowbottom Watson;
   chimestand was immediately below the
   belfry; installed by John J. Males
   of Baltimore; dedication chimest [sic]
   was F.L.Speiden of Louisville, Ky.;
   added semitones sharp 4th & flat 7th;
   existing hour and fire bell (by C.T.
   Robinson, 1886) retained.
   Old city hall demolished for construc-
   tion of I-195, over which new city hall
   is built; three bells from chime plus
   hour bell installed in freestanding
   tower in 1981; others stored with bells
   from FALL RIVER - HS (see above).
   Rededicated 1992.
   Tower and its bells removed Sep.2022;
   bells returned to storage.

*Technical data:

   Chime-sized instrument (without any workable playing mechanism) of  4 bells
   Pitch of heaviest bell is unknown
   Keyboard range:     NONE  /    NONE  
   Transposition is unknown
   The arrangement of tones and semitones is unknown.
   Bells were removed (as described in Remarks above) in 1981
   Prior history:
     In 1908, the complete instrument of 11 bells was installed
       with bells made by McShane         
       (4 bells remain from that work.)
       Pitch of heaviest bell was D# in the middle octave
       There were two added semitones
   Auxiliary mechanisms: nQnC    
   Tower details: 
     Height of console:                  . meters above ground
     Height of lowest level of bells:    4 meters above ground
     Height of highest level of bells:  10 meters above ground
     Belfry openness:  98%
   Year of latest technical information source is 1993

a waymarking page has a photo of the bell tower and a brass reproduction donor plaque.  (The original donor plaque, in the old city hall, was marble, and much larger.)

More information about this site may be available on the page of North American sites that are degraded.

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

   This page was built from the database on 25-Aug-25
   based on textual data last updated on 2025/08/07
   and on technical data last updated on 2025/08/07