Nemours Carillon


Nemours Carillon Tower

Links to Carillon Inventories
GCNA	Tower Bells	Bok Tower Gardens

Alfred I. duPont built a carillon on his estate in Wilmington, North Carolina. Thirty bells from the Meneely Bell Foundry in Watervliet, New York were installed in a 210-foot tower with an electric playing mechanism.

References
1935 "Carillon Tower Going Up at A.I. DuPont's 'Nemours'," The News Journal, March 30, 1935, Page 1 | Part 2 |

1935 Alfred Irénée Du Pont (12 May 1864 - 28 Apr 1935) He, his wife, and Ed Ball are buried in the Du Pont Carillon tower which is, probably, the first private mausoleum in history with a six-passenger elevator, beacon lights and a carillon.

1935 "DuPonts Soon to get Carillon Cast by Meneely Firm," The Knickerbocker Press, December 25, 1935, Page 13.

1936 "For DuPonts," The Knickebocker Press (Albany NY), January 5, 1936, Page 55.
Set of 30 chimes, made at the Meneely & Company bell foundry in Watervliet, ready to be shipped to the DuPont estate at Wilmington, Del. The set has been modeled after the chimes in the Washington Memorial at Valley Force.

1936 "Nemours Carillon Tower Is Nearing Completion," The Delmarva Star, January 5, 1936, Page 23.

1936 "Memorial Tower Ready," The News Journal, February 26, 1936, Page 14.

1964 The Estate of Alfred I. DuPont and the Nemours Foundation

1974 The Estate of Alfred I. DuPont and the Nemours Foundation
Page 20: Carillon Tower at Nemours, burial place of Alfred and Jessie Ball duPont.

1990 Alfred I. du Pont : The Man and His Family, by Joseph Frazier Wall
Page 623: In the spring of 1936, the carillon tower was at last completed. It was an impressive monument, rising 210 feet to be the highest structure in Del¬ aware, and as the Wilmington Star reported, it was “the largest reinforced concrete tower in the world,” built to carry in its apex, “the carillon of 31 bronze bells, which have been successfully cast.”
The first hint of her change of mind came in May 1936, shortly after the dedication of the tower, when, in conversation with her stepson, she told him that Alfred had had to correct the structural drawings that Massena and du Pont had made for the tower by inserting cross bracings and that Alfred furthermore had been highly critical of the firm’s structural engineer.