Porter Memorial Carillon

*Location:

   Highland Park United Methodist Church
   Mockingbird Lane, between Hillcrest
     Avenue and Bishop Boulevard
   Highland Park
   Dallas, Texas, USA
   LL: N 32.83695, W 96.78573

Site locator map

*Carillonist:

   John S. Acker   (A)
   E: jsatex@att.net
   - and -
   Gretchen W. Ryan   (A)
   E: bgryan@sbcglobal.net

   1985-20?? Lorn L. Howard   (A)
   19xx-20xx Carmen McCracken McMillan (A)
   19xx-20xx Mary Underwood Dibble

*Contact:

   Highland Park Methodist Church  (Su)
   Attn: Music Secretary
   3300 Mockingbird Lane
   Dallas, TX  75205-2397
   T: 214-521-3111   F: 214-520-6451
   E: info@hpumc.org

*Schedule:

   Daily at noon and 5pm; before and after
   1100 service Sundays; special events.

*Remarks:

   Replaced a 1926 Deagan 10-tube chime.
   Bourdon incorrectly reported by some
   sources as about 2000 lbs.; actually
   about 2000 kg.  The swinging bells are
   the 5 largest of the diatonic scale.
   Renovated by Verdin in 1999, with new
   transmission and clappers and GCNA
   standard keyboards; some bells rotated.

*Technical data:

   Traditional carillon of 48 bells
   Pitch of heaviest bell is C  in the middle octave
   Transposition is nil (concert pitch)
   Keyboard range:     C C   /    C C 24
   There is one missing bass semitone
   There is an identical practice console
   The whole instrument was installed in 1985
     with bells made by Paccard      
   Auxiliary mechanisms: S5    
   Tower details: 
     Height of console:                 15 meters above ground
     Height of lowest level of bells:   20 meters above ground
     Height of highest level of bells:  23 meters above ground
     Belfry openness:  40%
   Year of latest technical information source is 1991

The church Website has a faint drawing of the facade and tower in the upper left corner of some pages.  There is a photo on the History page.  Under Ministries/Music is a page about the carillon.

The Historical Marker Data Base has pages with photos of the building here and here.

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

Ranking among all North American traditional carillons by weight.
Ranking among all North American traditional carillons by size (number of bells).
Ranking among all North American concert class carillons by year of completion.

Other concert carillons with similar keyboard ranges.

Index to all traditional carillons in TX.

Index to all tower bell instruments in TX.

   This page was built from the database on 30-Jul-24
   based on textual data last updated on 2024/07/24
   and on technical data last updated on 1991/12/11