Arbor Update

Ann Arbor Area Community News

The Bells are Ringing

23. April 2008 • Juliew
Email this article

From the Ann Arbor News:

Bells will ring across Ann Arbor at noon today (April 23) to commemorate the signing of the city’s charter in 1833.

Ten bell towers in the city are participating, and the bells will ring for 10 minutes, organizer Steven Ball said. The Ann Arbor Guild of Bell Ringers says eight bell-ringing events are planned this year, and Ann Arbor is one of the only places in the world where most towers ring their bells manually.

Participating towers are at the Bethlehem United Church of Christ, Ann Arbor Hands-on Museum, Community of Christ Church, Forest Hill Cemetery, Kerrytown Market, St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, St. Paul Lutheran Church, St. Thomas the Apostle, Burton Memorial Tower and Lurie Tower on the University of Michigan’s North Campus.

The Ann Arbor Guild of Bell Ringers was formed to try to recapture the role that public bells and bell-ringing played in the 19th and early 20th centuries.



  1. I don’t think anything can match the experience of this last New Year’s Eve when the bells were ringing and perfect snowflakes were falling in the still air. That said, hearing these ten big bells ringing around the city is quite an experience. It is probably best from one of the high points in the city (the Stadium, Cedar Bend, or Sunset) where you can hear multiple bells, but most places in the city should be able to hear at least a few. Very cool. Kudos to Steven Ball for making this a reality.


       —Juliew    Apr. 23 '08 - 05:34PM    #
  2. Juliew, thanks so much for including this item. I’m eagerly awaiting the moment from my vantage point on Sunset hill.

    This typifies to me what makes Ann Arbor so great – a noncommercial, purely volunteer event requiring no special technology or merchandising, simply a gift to us all. I’m glad to learn more about its genesis.


       —Vivienne Armentrout    Apr. 23 '08 - 07:28PM    #