Washington School Bell

The Washington school bell was first hung on the high school on Spruce Street in 1891.  The bell is labeled “L.M. Rumsey Manufacturing Company St. Louis,” a large, wide-ranging company that made various iron equipment.  According to campanologist Carl Zimmerman, however, the Rumsey Company usually had these bells cast by another company and served as the distributor.  According to Zimmerman, this bell was almost assuredly cast by The Henry Stuckstede Bell Foundry Company of St. Louis.  The school was about fifteen years old at the time of purchase, and the bell hung until the building was demolished in 1952 and a new school was built.  The bell was then put into storage.

In 1964, the bell was brought out to be used as a prop for a spring concert. Then, the superintendent of the grade school, Roy Sprague, noticed the bell and thought it might be useful at the new Lincoln School, but no one came up with a good suggestion, so the bell remained in storage.

In 1976, retired Washington Grade School Secretary Caroline Martini suggested mounting the bell at the school on Spruce Street. The PTA, Washington Landscaping, contractor Wesley Wenger, and the students who raised $365 for the project helped mount and dedicate the bell on May 25, 1976.

By 2000, the bell tower was gone from the front of the grade school, and the bell was back in storage.  When the school moved to North Main Street and the Washington Park District took over the Spruce Street building in 2005, the bell was donated to the Washington Historical Society, who kept it on their property at 101 Zinser Place for approximately fifteen years.  When the Historical Society sold the Zinser property and moved to the square, they gave the bell to the high school, which had the bell completely refurbished by Miller Welding.  As of 2021, the school will display it at its front entrance.