Berea College

Berea College

Links to Carillon Inventories
GCNA	Tower Bells	Bok Tower Gardens

Berea College purchased 47 bells that had been cast in 1980 by Petit and Fritsen for John P. Hall of Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. The college also purchased five additional bells from another carillon Hall owned that matched the 47 bells. The 52 bells were stored at the I. T. Verdin Company in Cincinnati until Berea was ready to have them installed. Four additional matching bells were cast in 1999 and in 2000 the 56 bells were installed in the Draper Building tower.

The carillon was dedicated on October 27, 2000 with a recital by John Courter. It was formally named the John Courter Carillon in 2010 after John's death.

References
2020 "Berea College's carillon moves closer to making a joyful noise," Lexington Herald-Leader, July 11, 2000, Page 11.

2000 "Berea College ready to raise blessed bells," The Courier-Journal, July 12, 2000, Page 3.

2020 "Berea College dedicates bells," Lexington Herald-Leader, October 28, 2000, Page C1.

2013 "Beverly Buchanan Interview," by John Gouwens, Bulletin of the Guild of Carillonneurs in North America 62:23-31 (2013)
Page 27: As for Belmont, Larry Weinstein [carillonneur of the Deeds Carillon in Carillon Historical Park, Dayton, Ohio] contacted me about a small carillon that had become available. He wanted the top octave to add to the Dayton carillon and thought we could have the rest to enlarge the Belmont instrument. The school of music dean was against acquiring them, but Mark Brown, historian for the mansion at Belmont, said that from his experience, if you didn’t take an opportunity like that you’d be sorry later. The dean became a good backer and helped raise funds to get the bells needed to fill in the gaps between the existing instrument and the bells they had acquired.
The added bells came from the John P. Hall Estate, Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. The Hall estate had four carillons, the smallest of which was divided among Berea College, Dayton, and Belmont University. The largest carillon, of forty-seven bells, became the nucleus of the Berea carillon, with a few new bells cast to finish it.