The Maynard Chime

*Location:

   Trinity Episcopal Church
   West Fourth Street at Trinity Place
   Williamsport, Pennsylvania, USA
   LL: N 41.23981, W 77.01931

Site locator map

*Player:

   (unknown)

   19??-?? J. Bertram Strickland
                       (1921-2006)
   Tom Wierbowski

*Contact:

   Organist/Choirmaster
   Trinity Episcopal Church
   844 West Fourth Street
   Williamsport, PA  17701-5824
   T: 570-322-0126   F: 570-322-6508
   E: trinitychurchpa@comcast.net
      dgordon85@comcast.net

*Schedule:

   Only occasionally

*Remarks:

   Original bells all remain in use;
   added semitone is flat 7th.
   Tenth bell, cast by Melvin C. (Jim)
   Corbett (late Carillonneur member &
   former GCNA officer), now hangs on a
   movable dolly in the tower vestibule,
   the main entry to the church.
   Cambridge (Westminster) quarters, from
   tower clock by E.Howard (of Boston),
   who claimed this to be the first such
   installation in the USA; clockworks
   were above the bells 1875-1987,
   and now are below the keyboard.

*Technical data:

   Traditional chime (chimestand) of  9 bells
   Pitch of heaviest bell is E  in the middle octave
   Transposition is nil (concert pitch)
   Keyboard range:     E E   /    ----  
   There is one added semitone
   There is no practice console
   Bells were removed (as described in Remarks above) in 1973
   Prior history:
     In 1923, the instrument was enlarged to 10 bells
       by the maker cited in Remarks above
       (0 bells remain from that work.)
       Keyboard range was:     E F   /    ----  
     In 1875, the instrument was begun with  9 bells
       by Jones       
       (9 bells remain from that work.)
       Keyboard range was:     E E   /    ----  
   Auxiliary mechanisms: Q4HW1 
   Tower details: 
     Height of console:                 15 meters above ground
     Height of lowest level of bells:   21 meters above ground
     Height of highest level of bells:  23 meters above ground
     Belfry openness:  35%
   Year of latest technical information source is 1992

The church Website opens with a photo of the building and tower.  The chime is described in a paragraph on the History page, but that text is slightly misleading.  Four bells of the chime are used to play the Cambridge/Westminster quarter hour strike, and a fifth is used for the hour strike.  Research elsewhere has neither confirmed nor refuted the clock-maker's claim that the clock installed here in 1884 was the first in the USA to be capable of playing the Cambridge quarters. 
The Pictures page has a photo of Corbett's bell as a link to a page of photos about the tower, bells and clock. The clock photo appears to show five pull-wires from the quarter-hour train at left, which is highly unusual.  (The hour-strike train is at right and the clock-train, somewhat gutted by the electrification, is in the tall center frame.)

Where the initial phase of this work lies in the sequence of output of the Jones bellfoundry.
Where the final phase of this work lies in the sequence of output of miscellaneous bellfoundries, in this region and in the world.
(The bell by Corbett being the only one he ever cast, there is no index page for it.)

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 PA.

   This page was built from the database on  4-Nov-23
   based on textual data last updated on 2010/09/16
   and on technical data last updated on 1992/01/27