2020 City Hall Bell replaced TH ArticleBell readied for installation
in Dubuque City Hall tower
BY ERIK HOGSTROM
erik.hogstrom@thmedia.com
Organizers were on the cusp of restoring
a piece of Dubuque history to its rightful
place 30 years ago.
A successful fundraising campaign
meant that the 2,800-pound town bell,
constructed in 1858, could be hoisted up
and into a replica bell tower atop Dubuque
City Hall.
The bell remains in the tower today but
is not regularly used. ,
Here is how the Telegraph Herald re-
ported on the matter in its June 27, 1990,
edition.
CITY HALL'S BELL TO RING AGAIN
After 36 years of silence, the bell will
ring again from atop Dubuque City Hall in
October.
Fundraisers have gathered about
$88,000 of the $100,000 needed for the new
tower, organizer Gordie Kilgore said today.
The new tower is nearly complete and is
expected to be brought to Dubuque in three
sections on three extra -long semi -tractor
trailers the first week of October, Kilgore
said.
In preparation for that day, Walser Crane
Service Tuesday lifted the bell from its pres-
ent concrete pedestal in front of City Hall to
inspect and measure the interior.
Campbellsville Industries Inc., of Camp-
bellsville, Ky., is fabricating the tower. The
company needed the information to make
a new clapper for the bell.
The bell itself will be held stationary in
the new tower, and the clapper will move.
Itwill be activated with a button on the first
floor of City Hall.
Workers also weighed the bell, and it
topped the scales at 2,800 pounds. They
also hit it with a sledgehammer.
Telegraph Herald file
Bob Walser, of Walser Crane Service in
Dubuque, guides the old Town Bell back
onto its pedestal after it was lifted for
measuring and weighing on June 27,
1990, in preparation for its return to the
top of the City Hall building in the future.
"What a beautiful sound," Kilgore said.
The new tower will be an aluminum
reproduction of the original, 47-foot, wood-
en bell tower....
The bell has rested on the pedestal in
front of City Hall since 1968, when the
Dubuque County Historical Society placed
it there.
Cast by Meneely Bell Co. in Troy, N.Y.,
the bell was placed in the original tower
on May 21, 1858. The city paid $1,352 for
the bell.