Stanford University


Belgium Pavilion at the 1939 New York World's Fair	Hoover Tower at Stanford University

Links to Carillon Inventories
GCNA	Tower Bells	Bok Tower Gardens

The Belgian government paid for a carillon that was installed in the Belgian Pavilion of the 1939 New York World's Fair. The 35 bells of the carillon were cast in Tournai, Belgium, by Marcel Michiels. The bells were played by Kamiel Lefevere on the opening day of the fair, May 1, 1939.

The intention was to return the prefabricated building to Belgium after the fair, but the outbreak of the second world war made that impossible and the building including the bell tower was given to Virginia Union University in Richmond, where it was installed as the Belgian Friendship Building. The university is also raising fund to install a new carillon in the tower where the original carillon was installed.

After the fair, the Belgian government first offered the bells to the Washington National Cathedral, but they had no tower and the Cathedral had a commitment to purchase a larger instrument from the Taylor Bell Foundry in England. The bells were then donated former President Herbert Hoover in appreciation of his work with the Commission for Relief in Belgium. The bells were relocated to the new Hoover Library on the Stanford University campus, from which Hoover had graduated in 1895. The bells were first played on Kamiel Lefevre on March 18, 1941 and he returned for the dedication on June 20, 1941.

The carillon was renamed in honor of Hoover's wife Lou Henry Hoover in 2021.

References
1938 "Carillon for World's Fair," Nottingham Evening Post, December 22, 1928, Page 12.
12-Cwt. Bell Dedicated to King Leopold.

1941 "Stanford Will Put Belgian Gift Carillon in Hoover Tower," The San Francisco Examiner, January 8, 1941, Page 13.

1941 "$40,000 Belgian carillon arrives," Daily Palo Alto Times, January 9, 1941, Page 1.| Part 2 |
Bells to ring out over Stanford from tower of Hoover Library.

1941 "Carillon rings out from Hoover tower," Daily Palo Alto Times, March 18, 1941, Page 1 | Part 2 |

1941 "Belgian bells halt traffic," Daily Palo Alto Times, March 19, 1941, Page 14.

1941 "Hoover Library dedicated in impressive ceremony," Daily Palo Alto Times, June 21, 1941, Page 1 | Part 2 |

1989 "I Ring for Peace - The Bells of Stanford," by James R. Lawson, Bulletin of the Guild of Carillonneurs of North America 38:43-50 (1989)

2002 The History of the Hoover Carillon, May 1, 2002

2006 Bells for Peace: The 1939 Belgian Pavilion at the New York World's Fair.

2021 The Hoover Tower Observation Deck And Carillon Named In Memory Of Lou Henry Hoover, November 18, 2021