Lyons Township Bell Tower

This recording is part of the Pride in LT's History Project, a preservation movement to document and protect the items of historical importance around Lyons Township High School in La Grange, IL.

LT's bell tower was designed by architect Joseph C. Llewellyn and was inspired by towers found in northern Italy. It was part of the important school addition begun in 1926 and completed in 1928, the year in which the bells were installed.

Though part of the motor was replaced this spring (2013), the clock still runs on its original mechanisms, ringing every fifteen minutes.

There are four bells that ring, the largest inscribed:

I call as fly the irrevocable hours
Futile as air or strong as fate to make
Your lives of sand or granite; awful powers
Even as men choose, they either give or take.
—Lowell

The largest bell weights 1,800 pounds and the smallest 400 pounds.

These bells were donated by the M.W. Grand Lodge of Ancient Free and Accepted Masons of the State of Illinois as part of a community effort to beautiful the new 1928 addition to the school. LT also has the bell for the original school tower, donated in 1889 by Marshall Field. That bell used to be rung by hand after football victories at Emmond Field across the street.

Hour bell occurs at 0:00
Fifteen minute bell is at 15:15
Half hour at 30:15
Forty-Five minute at 45:15

This video was taken between 2PM and 2:45PM.

Video and sound shot and edited by Abigail Best (Class of 2012), July and August 2013.