Towering task

Bells plucked from Lutheran church on their way to get new strikers, voice

Brad Nettles
The Post and Courier

Hank White (top) clings to a beam in the St. Matthew's Lutheran Church bell tower as he and his father, Chuck White (on ladder), and Lupe Sanchez lower one of 13 bells from the tower Tuesday. A Johns Island bell foundry will fabricate new strikers for the bells.

Brad Nettles
The Post and Courier

Antonio Spells of Brush Construction guides one of 13 bells onto a truck after it was lowered by crane from the church tower.

Video

Workers removed thirteen bells and lowered them by crane to a waiting truck on King Street on Tuesday. They are going to be refurbished. Watch »

On King Street on Tuesday, a crane gingerly plucked 13 bronze bells from the tower of St. Matthew's Lutheran Church and placed them on a flatbed truck.

The bells will be refitted and the tower fortified. Brush Construction oversaw the delicate task of safely lowering the bells.

Christoph Paccard Bellfoundries will set the largest bell, which weighs 3,500 pounds, to swing. For more than a century, the bells have remained stationary. New strikers also will be fabricated for all the bells.

"A swinging bell throws its voice," said Stan Christoph, president of the Johns Island bell foundry. The bell's grand arc will be visible from across the street in Marion Square.

The Rev. James Blalock, interim senior pastor, said, "The Charleston downtown community will hear a real difference when they hear that bell."

Bells have been used in churches since the middle ages as calls to gather or to signal fires or attacks, Blalock said. St. Matthew's bells, which ring on the hour and every quarter hour, also mark celebrations and solemn remembrances. "The swinging bell will add another dimension to that," Blalock said.

The 10 original bells were cast by the Meneely Co. of West Troy, N.Y., and placed through the hard work of the Bell and Clock Society, comprising about 40 women from the then-German speaking church, according to Nancy Kruger, a volunteer with the church's Archives and History Committee.

For more than 40 years after the bells' dedication, Henry Ruus was the sole bell ringer, chiming them manually.

Then came the fire of 1965, which sent the steeple plunging 18 feet into the ground. A stub protrudes where the steeple implanted itself, and a commemorative plaque hangs nearby.

"Everything above the bells fell," said Douglas Ludlum, organist and director of music. Today, the bell tower and steeple, from the base of the courtyard to the tip of the weather vane, stand 254 feet and 4 3/8 inches.

After the fire, the bells were removed and refurbished, and three new bells were added, making it easier to play hymns and accidentals, he said. The bells also were made operable from inside the church with a console.

The frame holding the bells, which was updated in 1967 after the fire, has corroded, Ludlum said. Brush Construction will replace the steel supports for the bells, company President Steve Brush said.

The tower and bell work is the first phase of a three-year renovation project, Blalock said. Next year, work will be done below the sanctuary, and the third year will see the refurbishment of the church's exterior. The first phase is expected to cost $433,000, he said.

A brief history

1840: St. Matthew's Lutheran Church was founded at a time when many German immigrants were coming to Charleston.

1872: The church's present King Street location was dedicated.

1901: Clock and bells were installed in the steeple at a cost of $7,000.

1965: The church sanctuary caught fire, plunging the steeple 18 feet into the ground.