John P. Hall


Sherrie-John Manor in 1985	Picture taken after April 19, 1995 fire.

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Real estate developer John P. Hall and his wife Sherrie bought a 178-acre tract in Silver Spring Township near Mechanicsburg in 1968 where they planned to build a house and a recreation site. They began building their house in 1969 and called it "Sherrie-John Manor." Hall and his family had often visited Europe and became fascinated by carillons. He ordered not one Petit and Fritsen carillon for his house, but four, which were all believed to have been cost in 1980. The four carillons includes two 47-bell, four-octave instruments, a 35-bell, three-octave one, and a 23-bell, two-octave set. Hall took his family to visit the Petit & Fritsen bell foundry in the Netherlands when the bells were being cast in April 1980, which got him in trouble with the local school district for his children missing school.

Hall engaged Richard M. Watson of Verdin to design a 160-foot tower to house one of the instruments, although it is not known when the bells were installed or first played. While visiting the Verdin office in Cincinnati, Hall saw the Pepsi-Cola Traveling Carillon, whose bells were sold to and installed in the Cathedral of the Assumption in Louisville in 1981. Hall bought the frame of the traveling carillon and had one of this instruments installed in it, hoping to interest his children in playing it. Hall's wife Sherrie is listed as the carillonist for both instruments in a 1992 carillon inventory.

Hall's dreams were unfortunately bigger than his bank account and he began having financial difficulties in 1988 and he sold his carillons in the early 1990s. His 35-bell, 3-octave traveling carillon was bought by an anonymous party around 1991 and by July 1992 was traveling as the CariBelle with Frank Della Penna's popular Cast in Bronze show. The family's names were cast into these bells (and perhaps others) as shown here:

Inscription on Bell E4 (from 2009 reference below)

The disposition of the other three instruments is as follows:
The 47-bell, 4-octave carillon that had been installed in Hall's tower carillon was sold to Berea College in 1992 and was in storage until its installation in 2000 along with five bells from Hall's 23-bell, 2-octive carillon.
A second 47-bell, 4-octave carillon, never installed, was sold to the Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico (UPPR), where it was installed in 1992 and only played automatically.
The light 23-bell, 2-octave carillon was sold in three parts:
* The heaviest 11 bells were installed at Belmont University in 2002 to extend that instrument's treble range.
* The middle 7 bells went to the Deeds Carillon.
* The lightest 5 bells were included in the installation of the Berea College carillon in 2000.

Hall declared bankruptcy in 1993 and his personal property was auctioned off. Plans to sell the house and property were disrupted by a large fire on April 19, 1995 that left the property derelict and abandoned. The tower is visible from I-81 just south of exit 57.

Additional information on this unique musical adventure is being sought and will be added here.

References
1968 "Deeds Recorded," The Sentinel, April 27, 1968, Page 11.
Merritt and Edna S. Potteiger of Silver Spring Township to John P. Hall of Carlisle, tract of 178 acres in Silver Spring Township, $100,000.

1968 "Silver Spring Township Tract to be Developed," The Sentinel, May 7, 1968, Page 6.

1977 "$91,000 in Sentiment," The Sentinel, November 6, 1977, Page 23.
John and Sherrie Hall. A real estate developer from Mechanicsburg.

1980 "Couple fined for trip," The Sentinel, September 18, 1980, Page 1 | Part 2 |

1981 "Traveling carillon to bring music to downtown Louisville next week," The Courier-Journal, April 12, 1981, Page H5.

1981 "Carillonneur shows off bells for noon crowd," The Courier-Journal, April 16, 1981, Page 35.
[The bells from this instrument were installed in Louisville's Cathedral of the Assumption by December 1981. The frame was bought by John P. Hall.]

1983 "Parents Lose on School Trips," The Sentinel, May 16, 1983, Page B10.
The Halls, Parents of six children residing in the Cumberland Valley School district, recenly lost a four year battle. This ad paid for by John and Sherrie Hall.
The Halls had been planning a trip to Europe in the Spring of 1980 for quite some time. Originally they were going to travel to Europe and the Soviet Union as chaperones with their children on a school sponsored trip. The school sponsored trip was planned around the Easter vacation but still resulted in the children missing three days of school. However, because the trip was sanctioned by the school, the days missed would not have been recorded as absences. Unfortunately the school sponsored trip was cancelled because of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. When the school trip was cancelled Mr. and Mrs. Hall decided to take their own trip to Europe in its place. As outlined in their request for educational leave, the trip was a comprehensive tour of Scandinavia and the Netherlands. The family visited Amsterdam, its canals, cathedrals and museums. They also took a trip to southern Holland to a bell foundery where they witnessed the casting of a series of bronze bells which will be installed in a carillon.

1984 "Hall charged in fed crime," The Sentinel, November 8, 1984, Page 1.
Includes picture of Hall's tower.

1985 "$62G assessment on home upheld," The Sentinel, October 19, 1985, Page 1.

1992 "Carillons of the Americas," by Carl Scott Zimmerman, Bulletin of the Guild of Carillonneurs in North America 41:56-95 (1992)
Page 70: Mechanicsburg - 1 USA - PA
Location: John P. Hall Estate, Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, USA
Carillonist: Mrs. John P. Hall
Mechanicsburg - 2 USA - PA
Location: John P. Hall Estate, Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, USA
Carillonist: Mrs. John P. Hall
Remarks: Frame was formerly owned by Pepsi-Cola Limited (1970-1982) and known as the Pepsi Carillon; was listed as Mobile Carillon USA . Bells new for this installation.

1992 "A Pottstown carillonneur is able to make music wherever he goes," The Philadelphia Inquirer, July 3, 1992, Page 7.

1993 "'I dreamed beyond my means'," The Sentinel, July 24, 1993, Page 21 | Part 2 |

1996 Carillon: the evolution of a concert instrument in North America, by Karel and Linda Keldermans | also here |
Page 246: Developer John Hall became fascinated with a Verdin traveling carillon he saw at the company's factory in Cincinnati. He bought the frame and housing with the intention of using them for one of the two 4-octave carillons he had bought earlier. Meanwhile, at his estate home in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, Hall had a 150-ft. tower designed and built as part of the house, and made plans to install one of the carillons in that tower. He purchased the Verdin traveling carillon so that his children, whom he hoped would learn to play the carillon, could practice when the family was away from home.
Unfortunately, none of his children developed an interest in the instrument, and the traveling carillon stayed in his garage for a decade. When Hall ran into financial difficulty, he sold both carillons. This traveling carillon was purchased by a music lover in the Philadelphia area who wished to remain anonymous. It is now active as part of a musical group known as "Cast in Bronze" and played by Frank DellaPenna.

1997 Carillon Tower at Hall Mansion (Hall Tower) | also at Wikimapia |
John P. Hall Estate, Mechanicsburg, PA
Mr. Hall at one time owned four carillons, all made by Petit & Fritsen in 1980-82. In 1992, they were all sold, as follows:
The 4-octave tower carillon was sold to Berea College, Berea, KY, where it eventually became part of the present traditional carillon.
The 3-octave traveling carillon was sold to an anonymous investor, and is now based in Pennsylvania, where it is part of the musical group "Cast in Bronze".
The second 3-octave carillon, never installed, was sold to the Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico (UPPR), where it is played only automatically.
The light 2-octave carillon was sold in three parts:
* The heaviest 11 bells went to Belmont University, Nashville, TN, where they were used to extend that instrument's treble range.
* The middle 7 bells went to the Deeds Carillon, Dayton, OH, where they were used to extend that instrument's treble range.
* The lightest 5 bells went to Berea College (see above), to increase the range of that instrument.

2009 "The History of America’s Original Traveling Carillon," by Charis Lasky, Bulletin of the Guild of Carillonneurs in North America 58:30-41 (2009)
Pages 33-36: The 1980s: The Hall Era
The frame of the traveling carillon was sold to business magnate John Hall and sent to his mansion in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. Hall was an eccentric carillon enthusiast, and his mansion included a tower designed by Richard Watson specifically to hold a carillon. The tower eventually housed a four-octave instrument whose F3 bourdon weighed 2,000 pounds. Now armed with an empty frame, Hall had planned to install one of the four sets of carillon bells he owned (for “investment” purposes). His intention was to have his children learn the carillon at home and take the traveling instrument to their vacation home in New Jersey so they could continue to practice. Later, a three-octave set of “investment” bells was installed on the newly purchased frame and made playable for an on-site wedding. Richard Watson was the carillonneur for this event. The investment bells were later replaced by a complete set of bells cast by Petit & Fritsen in 1980.
The Hall estate was eventually liquidated and all four sets of investment bells were sold. The four-octave tower instrument was sold to Berea College in Berea, Kentucky, along with the lightest five bells of a lightweight two-octave set. The middle seven bells of the lightweight two-octave set were sold to Larry Weinstein and installed in the Deeds Carillon in Dayton, Ohio. The lightweight set’s heaviest eleven bells were installed in the carillon at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee. A three-octave set (C4 bourdon) was sold to the Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico in San Juan and was installed with electric action.

Pitch Inscription                                             Named for
C4    The Hall Family Carillon                      Undedicated
D4    The Family is the Song of Humanity    Undedicated
E4    When Bells Ring Hearts Sing               John Phillip Hall (Designer/Owner) Sherrie Hall (Wife)
F4    Sing Your Song                                     Melisa Lyne Hall (Daughter)
F#4   Dream the Impossible Dream              Heather Renee Hall (Daughter)
G4    Love and Good Cheer                          Kimberly Leine Hall (Daughter)
G#4 Ring It Ring It Ring It                          John Phillip Hall II (Son)
A5    Climb to Seek the Shining Sun            Christopher John Hall (Son)
A#5   In Every Heart There Is a Tower        Toren* John Hall (Son) *Dutch word for “tower”

2009 The Bell Man: The Autobiography of the Man Who Created Cast In Bronze, by Frank Della Penna

2009 Hall's Haunted Tower

2014 "World Carillon Federation Congress 2014: Mobile Carillons," by John Widmann, Bulletin of the Guild of Carillonneurs in North America 63(2):12-19 (2014)
Page 15: Caribelle
35 bells, Petit & Fritsen, 1980, cast for the John Hall estate in Pennsylvania. The keyboard and frame were built by Petit & Fritsen in 1967, and this was the first mobile carillon in the U.S. At one point, it was known as the Pepsi Carillon. The John Hall bells were installed in the frame in 1991, and this is the third set of bells to be in this traveling frame. This was the first carillon used by Frank DellaPenna for his Cast in Bronze show, and it is still used for that purpose.

2016 Pepsi-Cola Company Traveling Carillon
It was designed and created by the I. T. Verdin Company (Cincinnati, Ohio, US) and built in 1970. The carillon had 35 bells that were cast by the Petit and Fritsen Bell Foundry (Aarle-Rixtel, Holland, NL). The largest bell weighed 583 pounds. The carillon was disassembled in 1982. From 1982-1991, the frame and keyboard were at the John P. Hall Estate (Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, US). From the John P. Hall Estate, the frame and keyboard went on to become a part of the CariBell Traveling Carillon, of the Cast in Bronze musical group.

2020 Hall Mansion, site number 2 on this web site with a recent picture of the tower

2022 Abandoned Halls Tower Mansion in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania