Historic Scituate church bells restored

By: News Staff

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SCITUATE, R.I. (WLNE) — It is beginning to look and sound a lot like Christmas in Scituate.

After sitting idle for decades, the bell in the tower at the Old Congregational Church has been restored just in time for the holidays.

Crews used a large crane to hoist the refurbished 800 pound bell back into the tower.

“We will ring in the holidays with this bell. Our church bell,” said Scituate Town Council President, John Mahoney.

President Mahoney says a recent walk through of the town owned property, which dates back to the 1830s prompted the special project.

“I actually wanted to ring the bell. Lo and behold, it was non-functional. The bell hasn’t run in decades,” said Mahoney.

That just would not do. Working with the organizers of the Scituate Art Festival, which raises funds to maintain the church. Mahoney made the case that the bell needed to be heard again and wanted it ready by Christmas.

“He pulled it off and its going to be awesome to hear it ring again, and to hear it ring regularly,” said Scituate Town Council Vice President, Michael Payette.

A few updates have bee made this time around, though. For example, instead of being rung manually, the bell will now be handled remotely.

However, Mahoney says the history of the church remains in tact.

“Inside that bell tower, up inside the steeple there are the names of all the people who worked on that bell, dating back to 1840, 1830. Of course, our names are now in that bell tower. It was an amazing process. It was a pleasure and an honor to be a part of this,” said Mahoney.

The council allotted $25,000 for the project, which at this time, appears to be under budget and ahead of schedule.

Now, there is still a little bit of fine tuning left to do, but if everything goes according to plan, the bell could be ringing by the end of the week.

©WLNE-TV /ABC6 2017