On Nov. 7, the lower-sounding of the 60-year-old bells of Murchison Tower stopped working, leaving the tower silent and missing its hourly chimes for nearly a day. Facilities Services repaired it and brought back its sound.
The bells are not expected to require significant maintenance but occasional repairs are considered a normal part of their upkeep. Alex Serna-Wallender, Trinity University chaplain, noted that it is not a major concern as they are not broken.
“The bells are back to being working. This is not an uncommon situation necessarily. The bell mechanisms are 60 years old. And every once in a while, a bell will stop ringing properly, and then we fix it, and then it goes back to normal,” SernaWallender said. “This is part of the regular sort of maintenance.”
While Facilities Services intervened, many students remarked on the unusual sound of the bell tower and the absence of its hourly chimes. The students notified faculty and staff as soon as possible to address the issue, urging them to ensure that the sound of the bells was restored without delay.
“Students had noted that one of the bells seemed to not be working, but we had already put in the work order to facilities to repair the bell and to get the bell ringing properly again at that point,” Serna-Wallender said.
The Murchison Tower is once again ringing, bringing back the hour chimes to Trinity campus.
