*Location:

   Miller Bell Tower
   Chautauqua Institution
   (on the waterfront)
   NY.Highway 394 near Highway 33
   Chautauqua, New York, USA
   LL: N 42.21132, W 79.46215

   Pier Building

Site locator map

*Player:

   Tom Wierbowski
   170 South Main Street
   Mansfield, PA  16933-1514
   H: 570-662-3625
   Summer:
   Box 809
   Chautauqua, NY  14722-0809
   E: TJWier@ptd.net

*Contact:

   Vice President/Operations
   Chautauqua Institution
   Chautauqua, NY  14722
   T: 716-357-6200 or 1-800-836-ARTS
   E: rbarmore@ciweb.org

*Schedule:

   Daily during the season--
   tunes played 0800-15, 1200-15, 1800-15
   and sometimes 2200-15;
   bass bell swung 1030-2 and 2015-7, also
   Sunday 1500-2 before Amphitheater
   programs.

*Remarks:

   Tower built 1911 as a memorial to
   Chautauqua founder Lewis Miller.
   Original chime replaced 3 bells by
   Meneely & Kimberly, Troy, NY (1877),
   which in turn had replaced a single
   bell (1874, now in Mayville Methodist
   Church); added semitone was (and is)
   flat 7th.  Original chimestand and
   transmission removed in 1967; the
   sharp 4th added then was cast in 1878 by
   Meneely & Kimberly.  Electric keyboard,
   action and controls from 1967 totally
   replaced about 1990.
   Cambridge (Westminster) quarters.

*Technical data:

   Traditional chime (chimestand) of 14 bells
   Pitch of heaviest bell is D# in the middle octave
   Transposition is up  3 semitone(s)
   Keyboard range:     C G   /    NONE  
   There are two added semitones
   There is no practice console
   The instrument was enlarged in 1967
     with  3 bells by Petit & Fritsen
   Prior history:
     In 1885, the instrument was begun with 10 bells
       by Meneely/Troy
       (10 bells remain from that work.)
       There was one added semitone
   Auxiliary mechanisms: Q4W1  
   Tower details: 
     Height of console:                  0 meters above ground
     Height of lowest level of bells:   16 meters above ground
     Height of highest level of bells:  18 meters above ground
     Belfry openness:  70%
   Year of latest technical information source is 1992

A photo of the belfry (part of the tower which is the Institution's logo) appears on the home page of their Website.  Another photo was formerly available to download as a desktop image, but has disappeared in the latest Website redesign.  The dropdown menu of "Chautauqua Quick Links" offers "Miller Bell Tower Chimes", which is a sound clip of the bells playing the Cambridge (Westminster) quarters tune and hour strike at noon; the character of the sound is typical of Meneely (Troy) bells.  Searching the Chautauqua Website yields two fine photos of the bell tower, but no significant mention of it in any text.

Illustrated document about the design and construction of the tower

Photoblog with 3 pictures of the tower but no text

Tower photo, view from the north

Where the initial phase of this work lies in the sequence of output of the Meneely (Troy) bellfoundry.
Where the final phase of this work lies in the sequence of output of the Petit & Fritsen bellfoundry, in this region and in the world.

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 NY.

   This page was built from the database on  4-Nov-23
   based on textual data last updated on 2023/09/08
   and on technical data last updated on 1992/11/17