Belated Bells.

Several weeks ago I had coffee with Basil and Mary Ellen Acey in their Roland Park home and the topic of the Harrison Carillon came up. Basil was instrumental (no pun intended) in bringing to fruition this magnificent feature to our historic church. I asked Basil to send me some background information that I might be able to use for this blog. I have decided to include his written piece in its entirety as follows:

"Sunday morning services at OSP begin with a ‘peal’ from the Harrison Carillon located in the north Tower of the sanctuary over the Reading Room.


The Harrison Carillon is an assembly of 23 bells mounted on a large steel frame which can be seen through the screened arched openings in the Tower.

(ed. note: the photos shown here are not our carillon as I have not yet had the opportunity to climb the tower, but I'm pretty sure that ours looks much the same. -F.C.)

The Carillon is named in honor of the Baltimore businessman – George Harrison – who assembled a group of Baltimore companies which donated the $122,125 for the carillon to be fabricated, shipped and installed in the Tower. OSP was responsible for the costs for design and construction of the Tower interior structure to receive the carillon.


The current OSP – designed in 1853 by the New York architect Richard Upjohn (who also designed Trinity Episcopal Church in N.Y.)- with a bell tower – Campanile –of about 150 ft in height. However lack of funds limited the current height to 56 ft. Whether the original Tower or the current tower was to contain bells has not been confirmed, but the current Tower was constructed without any openings , leaving no doubt that bells were not planned for at that time.


Mr. Harrison had been involved in the installation of bells at other locations in the U.S., and had expressed an interest -in discussions with the Rector William McKeachie and members of the OSP Vestry and Senior Warden in October, 1988 - in bringing bells into OSP and downtown Baltimore. A Committee composed of members of OSP and prominent businessmen under the leadership of Mr. Harrison was established and plans for the future installation began to take form.



In early, 1990, Mr. Harrison selected The Verdin Company, founded in 1842 in Cincinnati, Oh., to provide the Carillon. Verdin, in turn, selected Petit and Fritsen Royal Bellfoundry , founded in the Netherlands in 1660, to cast the bells.


On December 10, 1990, the Carillon arrived in Baltimore, and assembly of the frame and bells in the Tower was completed in a few days. Concurrently , the internal components – control equipment, keyboard console, organ relays – were installed at the organ console, and the whole assembly was then calibrated ,tuned and programmed by Verdin and the OSP organist and choirmaster, Rodney Hansen.


The Harrison Carillon was dedicated to the parish, the generosity of Baltimore businesses and businessmen who supported it and the citizens of Baltimore."

More on this later!