When Hamline University first moved to its St. Paul campus in 1880, the administration was centered in the old University Hall. Three years later, it burned down, and the modern day Old Main was built shortly thereafter. One of the only things to survive the fire and be continually used was their newly commissioned bell.
While the ringing that marks the beginning of every hour has been electronic since 1915, the old bell is still brought out to mark each new graduating class and presidential inauguration ceremonies.
One of the people in charge of transporting the bell was the Utility/General Maintenance Technician I Corey Farrell from facilities, and talked about this piece of Hamline History.
“So, yeah, they replaced it with this bell, and then, years ago, they took it out, and they put it in storage, and it comes out every time we greet new classmen, or have an inauguration and graduation. So, two or three times a year it sees the light of day,” Farrell said. “But other than that, it just stays in storage. We secure the bell to the forklift. We gotta drive really slow ’cause of all the bumps and cracks and stuff, but it’s easy to move because even without the forklift it’s pretty easy to push around.”
The other person who was in charge of transporting and ringing the bell was Utility/General Maintenance Technician III Steve Zemisek, and he also had a few words to say about this bell.
“Well, it was the original bell that was up in the tower, and when they went electronic with it, they got it down. We bring it out for commencement. It’s for special occasions; we just kind of have it hidden away. It was cast in 1883, and somebody said it’s in E sharp, but I’m not sure… It’s just hidden out most of the year. We’ve had a couple of problems with it;, you can see it’s cracked and it’s been repaired, but otherwise it’s all original. That’s about all I can tell you about it,” Zemisek said.
So, the next time you attend a graduation ceremony at Hamline, whenever you hear that bell ringing, you are experiencing a piece of Hamline history.
