*Location:

   Grace Deliverance Baptist Church
     (was Grace Lutheran Church, ELCA)
   East Broad Street near School Street
   Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, USA
   LL: N 40.62205, W 75.37598

Site locator map

*Player:

   (unknown)

   21De1924 ded. Franklin F.S. Walter

*Contact:

   Grace Church
   74 East Broad Street
   Bethlehem, PA  18018-5917
   - or -
   E: harvest925@aol.com

*Schedule:

   (unknown)

*Remarks:

   Tubular bells attributed to Durfee;
   added semitones are sharp 4th, flat 7th,
   sharp unison and its octave.  Played
   from a chimestand possibly supplied by
   McShane in 1924, when tubes may have
   been replaced.
   31 May 2012: Church closed, building
   sold to another denomination.

*Technical data:

   Traditional chime (chimestand) of 15 tubular bells
   Pitch of heaviest bell is G# in the middle octave
   Transposition is nil (concert pitch)
   Keyboard range:     G#C#  /    NONE  
   There are four added semitones
   The whole instrument was installed in 1904
     by the maker cited in Remarks above
   No auxiliary mechanisms known
   Tower details not available
   Year of latest technical information source is 2006

Old postcard photo

An even older postcard photo, b/w of church & parsonage; tubes possibly visible in tower

A 1924 news article seems to imply that McShane replaced the older set of tubular bells, rather than simply replacing the taut-rope rack with a chimestand.  Either interpretation is possible, since this was about the time that McShane bought Durfee's tubular chime business.

A 1924 news article on a forthcoming organ recital also has a paragraph about the tubular bells.

Where this work lies in the sequence of output of its maker.

Ranking among all tower tube instruments by size (number of notes).

Index to all tower tube instruments in PA.
Index to all tower bell instruments in PA.

   This page was built from the database on  8-Mar-21
   based on textual data last updated on 2021/03/06
   and on technical data last updated on 2006/03/20