Every day, we follow a routine. Wake up, eat breakfast, go to classes, eat lunch, extracurricular activities, eat dinner, do homework, and finally go to bed. Guiding the routine is the hourly toll of the Guilford bell.
If you didn’t know already, at the top of every hour during the day, a bell rings to signify that a new hour is starting. Although everybody hears the bell, many people rarely bother to think about it.
But my editor does. So at his behest, I contacted President Kent Chabotar. His exact words were: “I have no clue.”
Next, I contacted the Executive Assistant to the President, Joyce Eaton. Her exact words were: “The bell is located on top of Founders Hall.”
Now, we were getting somewhere. But many questions were still unanswered: Where did the bell come from? How old is it? If I ask politely, can I ring it?
I decided to dig deeper into its history. Gwen Erickson, Friends Historical Collection Librarian, provided me with some interesting information. The bell was donated to the college in the early 1900s by a group of donors. At the time, people physically rang the bell. In 1975, an automatic operating system was introduced. These mechanized chimes still control when, and for whom, the bell tolls.
However, in 1987, disaster struck. The electric solenoid, a device that pulls the clapper that strikes the side of the bell, was hit by lightning. The repairs took about four hours: two to determine the problem and two to repair the bell.
The bell was once again hit by lightning 12 years later. Students, unable to keep track of time without the bell’s hourly tone, wandered around campus baffled and late for classes.
Maintenance had their hands full repairing the bell, and they took measures to make sure another bell crisis would never wreak havoc on Guilford again.
“As a result of that incident, we added a grounding rod to protect the bell from any further lightning occurrences,” said Mark Miller, Director of Maintenance and Small Projects.
I had learned a lot while researching of the Guilford bell. But the biggest surprise was yet to come. While flipping through a March 1901 edition of The Guilfordian (which back then was called the Guilford College Collegian), I found that an article had already been written about the bell!
My Victorian doppelganger had this to say about the new bell: “The old bell that has awakened many a drowsy sleeper and called many a hungry student to the dining room, has at last toiled its own knell. It cracked during a recent cold snap and lost its once musical voice. Now a new one is proclaiming the meal hours through the college and to all the inhabitants thereof.”
The bell may often go unnoticed, but it has a long history. Stop and think about what that bell has been through. It has gone through major changes since its installation, and it is still there today. Next time you hear it ringing, stand still and listen.