The Deeds Carillon and Carillon Park

Throughout her life, Mrs. Edward A. Deeds was a lover of music. By the time she had reached her early teens she was an accomplished musician. From then until her passing in 1949, music remained one of the dominant interests of her life. Her desire to share the beauty of good music with others found expression in many ways and culminated in her decision to erect a Carillon which for generations to come would be a source of enjoyment and relaxation for the people of this community. She saw this dream fulfilled when on Easter Sunday in April, 1942, the Deeds Carillon bells rang out in a program of Easter music. The beautiful shaft with its thirty-two bells became a striking symbol of the interest of Mrs. Deeds in music and in the community of which she was so long a part.
Carillon Park owes its existence to the generosity of two public-spirited Dayton citizens, Colonel and Mrs. Edward A. Deeds. It is an expression of the interests of two people expanded for the pleasure and advancement of the entire community.
The Park had its inception with the Carillon, the gift of Mrs. Deeds. Devoted to music from her girlhood, and herself an accomplished musician, she had the inspiration for it while listening to the chimes in one of the famous old belfries of Bruges. As the melodious notes fell on her ears she said to herself, “In no other way can simple and inspiring music be spread among the entire populace.” In that hour was born the idea of the Deeds Carillon which rears its majestic height in the midst of Carillon Park.
The idea of combining a group of bells to form a carillon dates back to the Middle Ages. Since bells provided the world’s oldest and most simple form of musical expression there came the evolution from a call to prayer to a musical program. Some of Europe’s most famed and beautiful towers have carillons. The carillon was developed to a greater and more artistic extent in Belgium than in any other continental country, not only in Bruges but also in Antwerp, Ghent, and Mechlin. Around the carillon bells has been woven a tradition of beauty and inspirational service.