Bells taken down, but they’ll be back this summer, calling people to worship
OCEAN CITY — Bells that in the late 1800s heralded the 100th anniversary of the laying of the cornerstone of the U.S. Capitol rang out June 14, 1998, from the new tower on the Ocean City Tabernacle grounds. They called people to worship for the start of the Tabernacle’s 119th season.
Those 13 bells, originally commissioned to represent the 13 colonies for that celebration in Washington, D.C., were carefully taken down from their perch at the Tabernacle last week to be refurbished.
The plan — fingers crossed — is that with their restored copper luster and fixed mechanisms, they will ring out again this summer in time for the anniversary of the original dedication in Ocean City, or at least by the nation’s 250th birthday in July.
“It would be great to get them back then,” Tabernacle Executive Director Tom Sherf said March 18 about the June date, “but it’s possible it could be later in the summer. They could come back right around July 4th. Ben Carson comes to the Tabernacle on July 5th.”
Carson, a famous neurosurgeon and conservative who ran for president and then served as U.S. secretary of Housing and Urban Development, is the featured speaker that day. He is one on a long list of popular speakers the Tabernacle has scheduled this summer season, including former Philadelphia Eagle and NFL Hall of Famer Brian Dawkins, who is the speaker the following week.
Sherf said when he became executive director in October, the mechanisms in the bells weren’t all functioning.
“We were losing notes,” he explained, adding that the bells had once been able to play hymns, but some constituents had noticed the sounds wasn’t right.
The board at the Tabernacle had been discussing whether to execute the new contract with Verdin Bell Co. in Cincinnati, Ohio. Sherf was all for it even though it was one of the larger decisions on contracts he had to make in his short tenure.
“It’s a piece of history. It’s American history, but also a good tradition here in Ocean City. They’ve rung for years,” he said.
The Tabernacle could have just had the internal repairs done on the mechanisms or could bring them back to the original luster.
Sherf and the board decided with the nation’s 250th anniversary coming up, they should go all the way, fixing the internals and renewing the shine.
The bells, the heaviest of which weighs thousands of pounds, made their way to First Methodist Church in Camden in 1893 after the celebration in the Capitol as a donation to the church from George Hull. After being in service for a long time, the church closed. Cooper Hospital (now Cooper University Health Care) bought the property and made a gift of the bells to the Ocean City Tabernacle Association.
Friends of the Tabernacle contributed to having the bells restored to their original luster by Verdin. That was nearly three decades ago.
Now they’re going back to Verdin to be restored again.
When the bells were installed, the Tabernacle used them to call people to worship on Sunday and they were to be played at noon daily “to inspire all who hear.”
When they are reinstalled, the Tabernacle is going to light the bells again so they can be seen not just across the Tabernacle’s campus, but far down Central Avenue.
The importance of this, according to Sherf, is maintaining not just the physical history of the bells, but part of the mission of the Tabernacle, which is to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to serve and support the community, resident and visitor alike.
“The Tabernacle has been there since the beginning (of Ocean City). It’s the heart, part of the culture of the city,” he said. He wants his three sons to have the same type of legacy, to hear the call to worship, because that’s what the bells were originally supposed to do.
“The bells are one of the examples of the legacy that this place has in the city, to be able to continue to remind people of what we do — our preaching ministry, our support, our care, our desire to nurture the next generation to serve Ocean City,” Sherf said.
June 14, 1998
Elizabeth Dole attended the dedication ceremony for the bells that Sunday in 1998 after being the featured speaker at the Tabernacle. She was then president of the American Red Cross.
Dole, who was married to U.S. Sen. Bob Dole of Kansas, also served as U.S. secretary of transportation, secretary of labor and later as a U.S. senator herself from North Carolina, among many other posts.
The Ocean City Sentinel (including this reporter/photographer) was there to capture Dole as speaker and the bell ceremony. Former U.S. Rep. Frank LoBiondo offered remarks, as did former mayor Henry “Bud” Knight, and Robert Dalhausen, then vice chairman of the board. William Luff Jr. was the chairman of the board of the Tabernacle Association then and J. Robert Buck was the president and chief executive officer.
After the ceremony, Doug Gefvert played the bells, which “rang loud and clear,” according to the story days later in the Ocean City Sentinel.
– STORY and PHOTOS by DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
