PITTSBURGH - FB : USA - PA

*Location:

   First Baptist Church of Pittsburgh
     (ABC)
   Bayard Street & Bellefield Avenue
   Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
   LL: N 40.44759, W 79.95304

Site locator map  or 
Also see our own Map Use Hints.

*Player:

   (unknown)

*Contact:

   First Baptist Church
   159 North Bellefield Avenue
   Pittsburgh, PA  15213-2609
   T: (412)621-0500
   E: information@
        first-baptist-pittsburgh.org

*Schedule:

   (Unusable for many years)

*Remarks:

   Hemispherical bells by
   Mears & Stainbank; added
   semitones are sharp 4th & flat 7th.
   Prior report of being made in 1866 was
   incorrect.  Originally equipped with
   Ellacombe stand, later augmented by an
   electric action from the organ console.
   Possibilities for renovation are
   under investigation.

*Technical data:

   Chime-sized instrument (without any workable playing mechanism) of 12 bells
   Pitch of heaviest bell is D# in the treble octave
   Transposition is up one octave
   Keyboard range:     D#G   /    ----  
   There are two added semitones
   The whole instrument was installed in 1913
     with bells made by Whitechapel 
   Year of latest technical information source is 2005

*Links:

The church Website has a photo of the building on the home page; the bells are in the central spire.  A History page (found from the left margin menu) doesn't mention the bells, but has a top margin submenu which provides access to a page about "Our Silent Chimes".  There is a clickable photo of the bells.  The text contains an error: the chimola was NOT installed in the Fourth Avenue Chapel (the previous building, occupied 1866-1912), but was made for this building in 1913.

Where this work lies in the sequence of output of the Whitechapel bellfoundry, in this region and in the world.

Index to North American chimolas.

Ranking among all North American chimes by size (number of bells).
Ranking among all North American chimes by year of completion.

Index to all tower bell instruments in PA.

*Status:

   This page was built from the database on  9-May-10
   based on textual data last updated on 2010/04/30
   and on technical data last updated on 2005/04/07

Explanations of page format and keyboard range are available.

[TowerBells Home Page] [Site data top page] [Credits and Disclaimers] [Feedback]

Please send comments or questions to csz_stl@swbell.net