The bell in the tower of the Congregational Church is a product of Paul Revere’s foundry, and it was first hung in the second church built on Meeting House Hill near “Sunset Rock” (58 Mountain Road).
After the town had voted (this was before the separation of the church and state in Massachusetts) to procure a bell “of proper bigness” for this structure, a committee purchased from Paul Revere & Son a bell weighing 874 pounds, which cost after transportation (probably by ox teams) and hanging $470.48.
When the present congregational church was erected in 1838 on the Common, the bell was taken from the old church on the hill and installed in the belfry where it now swings.
Few indeed are the persons living who can properly hang or ring a bell to send the mellow richness of its tones for miles. Joseph Warren Revere once wrote, “Bells made here and in England are intended to be rung by a wheel, by which method the bell strikes the tongue and frees itself at once. An English or a Revere bell breaks if improperly rung.” So delicate is the bell that he adds, “With a yard of string, I would undertake to break every church bell in Boston.”
This being so, it certainly is unfortunate that our own beloved bell swings at a precarious angle owing to the settling on one side of the frame from which it is hung. A semblance of tolling is achieved only by pulling with a string the tongue towards the bell. Shades of Joseph Warren Revere!!!
Miss Ethel Mirick
I am indebted to Mr. Francis Blake and to Miss Esther Forbes for many of the above facts.
This was copied from the Princeton News, Vol. I, No. 8, dated October 1, 1952 and clarified/updated August 2015 by PHS Board Members.
Note: In the late 50’s Russ Vickery and Bill Brooks rebuilt and leveled this bell platform.