Nearly two months after a flood, the Occidental bell tower rings again

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Bell tower at Occidental College in Los Angeles, CA. Oct. 23, 2024. Marty Valdez/The Occidental

The Occidental bell tower recommenced ringing Oct. 3 for the 2024–2025 academic year. The bell tower was not working before, because the Johnson Student Center (JSC) boiler room flooded eight inches Aug. 11, according to an email from lead electrician Lope Bautista.

“The bell starts ringing at 6:00 am every 15 minutes until 10:00 pm, Monday through Friday, and on Saturdays and Sundays, it starts at 7:00 am until 10:00 pm,” Bautista said.

According to Bautista, the Occidental bells are not real bells, but rather an electronic Digital Chronobell system simulation of the Westminster Abbey bells.

“The power supply component of the bell system got damaged at that time [Aug. 11]. We shipped the component to Maas-Rowe, who is the manufacturer of the electronic Chronobell system,” Bautista said.

Paul Rowe, the owner of Maas-Rowe Carillons Inc. in Escondido, CA, said that their company manufactures bell systems that provide the sound for large bells. Some of their company products include carillons, cast bells, tower clocks and church signs. Rowe said they also make an automatic system that causes bells to ring or be set to ring at different times.

Rowe said that he has been in charge of the company since 1968, after his father, one of the partners in the business, passed away. According to Rowe, the company started over 100 years ago making brass chimes for organs and has installed thousands of bells in the US and internationally.

Balboa Park Tower in San Diego next to the San Diego Zoo is one of these systems that’s been installed since the World War II memorial,” Rowe said.

Rowe said they also have installations at different universities. Besides at Occidental College, the company’s bells are at The University of Southern California, the University of California, Los AngelesCalifornia State University, North Ridge and Pepperdine University.

According to Rowe, the company is named after Louis Maas, a pipe organ builder who created his own chimes. He said that at first, the systems were keyboard instruments, but then the developers became interested in automated systems.

“People could just program and not have to play it live. Rather than come in every day at noon and play a keyboard, it could be programmed so that you could change songs,” Rowe said.

Rowe said the original Occidental bell tower was installed around 1984, with the college having tubular chimes before that. According to Rowe, the original electronic system was updated in 1999, and in 2011, a CD player was added to the system.

According to Rowe, the bell tower’s equipment is located in a boiler room at the college, which floods often. In 2017, the bell tower started ringing again during Homecoming Weekend after not working for 10 months because a flood damaged the system, like the most recent incident.

“Part of it was underwater, so it quit working, and then they sent me pictures of how high the water was and everything, and we determined that it didn’t really damage everything except some small power supply that was at the bottom of the cabin,” Rowe said. “Everything else was higher up, and the water didn’t come up that high.”

Maeve Richards (sophomore) said she did not really notice the absence of the bells. According to Richards, it was not until someone brought it up that she realized the consistent bell system had not been present.

“When [the chimes were] missing and I realized [they were] missing, I was like, ‘Why is it missing? I miss the bell,’” Richards said.“But now that it’s here, I feel almost indifferent, or sometimes I think that it rings a lot.”

Maeve Richards (sophomore) and Kate Brown (senior) on the Academic Quad at Occidental College in Los Angeles, CA. Oct 23, 2024. Marty Valdez/The Occidental

According to Kate Bown (senior), the bells are helpful.

“It’s sort of grounding to have a marker,” Bown said. “It orients myself, and I’m like, ‘What time is it, what am I doing, do I need to be somewhere?’”

According to Richards, she shares the same sentiment on the bells as Bown.

“It just reminds me to check the time and figure out what I need to do that day,” Richards said.

Contact Francine Ghazarian at ghazarian@oxy.edu

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