*Location:

   First Unitarian Church
   Washington Street at Highland Street
   West Newton, Massachusetts, USA
   LL: N 42.34877, W 71.22767

Site locator map

*Player:

   Robert Feldman
   31 Crestwood Drive
   Framingham, MA  01701-7917
   H: 508-740-5390
   E: robert_feldman@hotmail.com

*Contact:

   First Unitarian Universalist Society
     in Newton
   1326 Washington Street
   West Newton, MA  02465-2078
   T: 617-527-3203   F: 617-964-5409
   E: office@fusn.org
   - or -
   Ann Watson Born, Music Director
   E: music@fusn.org

*Schedule:

   Before and after each Sunday service;
   occasional summer evening recitals.
   Cambridge (Westminster) quarters.

*Remarks:

   Added semitones sharp 4th, flat 7th.
   McShane replaced transmission and
   resurfaced clappers in 2012.

*Technical data:

   Traditional chime (chimestand) of 11 bells
   Pitch of heaviest bell is D  in the middle octave
   Transposition is nil (concert pitch)
   Keyboard range:     D E   /    NONE  
   There are two added semitones
   The presence or absence of a practice console is unknown
   The whole instrument was installed in 1916
     with bells made by McShane     
   Auxiliary mechanisms: Q4H   
   Tower details not available
   Year of latest technical information source is 1997

The church Website has a photo of the building on the home page, but it has lost extensive pages on the history of the Society and on its buildings.  The chime used to be described briefly on the Buildings page, and mentioned on the Music page.
An archived version has pages about History and Our Building, with a paragraph about the chime and clock in the latter, plus several photos and drawings.

News article (Nov.2021) regarding a grant to aid renovation of the bell tower; with a large photo of the tower clad in scaffolding.

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

Index to all tower bell instruments in MA.

   This page was built from the database on 29-Jul-22
   based on textual data last updated on 2022/07/29
   and on technical data last updated on 2022/01/30