*Location:

   St.Francis de Sales Catholic Church
   Walnut Hills
   Madison Road at Woodburn Avenue
   Cincinnati, Ohio, USA
   LL: N 39.12978, W 84.47660

Site locator map

*Contact:

   St.Francis de Sales Catholic Church
   2900 Woodburn Avenue
   Cincinnati, OH  45206
   T: 513-961-1945

*Schedule:

   (unknown)

*Remarks:

   Hour bell (the largest ever cast in
   the USA) plus 4 quarter bells.

   E0, 9', 27390 lb, 1896, Vanduzen
   B1,   ,         , 1896, Vanduzen
   E1,   ,         , 1896, Vanduzen
   F#1,   ,        , 1896, Vanduzen
   G#1,   ,        , 1896, Vanduzen 

*Technical data:

   Clock-chime with quarters of  5 bells
   Pitch of heaviest bell is unknown
   Keyboard range:     NONE  /    NONE  
   Transposition is unknown
   The arrangement of tones and/or semitones
     is non-standard; see Remarks above.
   The whole instrument was installed in 1896
     with bells made by Vanduzen         
   No auxiliary mechanisms known
   Tower details not available
   Year of latest technical information source is 19**

A Photo of the bell and introduction to a news article about Big Joe's history

Video in the belfry (0:48) of 9:00 hour strike with drop hammer

This video (8:02) is actually an audio track of intermittent tolling (possibly for Angelus), with a fixed image.
Exterior video (0:48) of 5pm hour strike preceded by Westminster tune (hour strike at the octave); the second of the four quarter bells is badly off pitch.  In these three videos, the pitch of Big Joe varies slightly, but seems closer to E-natural than to the reported E-flat.

Church photo (archived in 2008)

Verdin article about Big Joe, with photo

Building photos and statistics from Emporis Buildings; also see our Emporis Advice.

Where this work lies in the total sequence of output of the Vanduzen bellfoundry.

   This page was built from the database on 25-Aug-25
   based on textual data last updated on 2025/08/13
   and on technical data last updated on 2025/08/13