The Deeds Carillon and Carillon Park

by Anonymous

The Deeds Carillon

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.

Mrs. Edward A. Deeds and Colonel Deeds at the first regularly scheduled carillon program August 23, 1942.

Before embarking on her enterprise Mrs. Deeds viewed many carillons at home and abroad and made a careful study of bells. The initial requirement was to find a site which would provide the best ultimate results from carillon music without echo and the jumbling of tone. Early in her planning Mrs. Deeds considered Deeds Park at the junction of the Miami River and Mad River. This park—a gift of Colonel Deeds to the city of Dayton—would have made an appropriate setting. The idea was reluctantly abandoned because of interfering noises and sound deflection which would occur in the area. Finally Mrs. Deeds decided upon a site in the triangular area located between Patterson Boulevard and Carillon Boulevard almost adjacent to Old River, The National Cash Register Company recreational park.

The beautiful bronze door at the Carillon is more than an entranceway. In the cherished words of Longfellow’s “Christmas Bells” it expresses the spirit in which the Carillon was conceived and dedicated to the service of the people ... “With Peace on Earth, good will to men.”

IT WAS AS IF AN EARTHQUAKE RENT

THE HEARTHSTONES OF A CONTINENT

AND MADE FORLORN

THE HOUSEHOLDS BORN

OF PEACE ON EARTH GOOD WILL TO MEN

AND IN DESPAIR I BOWED MY HEAD

THERE IS NO PEACE ON EARTH I SAID

FOR HATE IS STRONG

AND MOCKS THE SONG

OF PEACE ON EARTH GOOD WILL TO MEN

THEN PEALED THE BELLS MORE LOUD AND DEEP

GOD IS NOT DEAD NOR DOES HE SLEEP

THE WRONG SHALL FAIL

THE RIGHT PREVAIL

WITH PEACE ON EARTH GOOD WILL TO MEN

LONGFELLOW

The sixty-one acres comprised in Carillon Park represent a notable piece of reclamation. For many years it was periodically flooded and became a bushy swamp breeding mosquitoes and germs. It was one of Dayton’s eyesores in addition to being a menace to health. The decision to build the Deeds Carillon led to its transformation. Within a year the one-time “dismal swamp” emerged as an ideal pleasure ground equipped with a parking space for hundreds of motor cars. In this lovely, wooded, and verdant environment the citizens of Dayton and all others who come, relax and enjoy the music of the carillon bells.

Including both large and small examples, there were only six true carillon towers in the United States prior to the construction of the Deeds Carillon. Of these, two were on college grounds, two on private estates, one in a cemetery, while the sixth was the one built by the late Edward K. Bok on his Florida estate. A true carillon must have a minimum of twenty-three bells providing the tones and semitones to encompass the full octaves. Except in rare instances when they were hung in the gabled arches of the old Spanish missions and outside oriental temples, carillon bells are seldom seen. For hundreds of years architects have struggled with the problem of providing structures to support carillons which will elevate them to a height at which they can be adequately heard over the surrounding countryside. The solution had invariably been to erect an enclosed tower in which the bells are hidden from view and covered with grilles which screen the bells from sight and tend to muffle the sound.

The casting of carillon bells is an art handed down from father to son. The Meneely Company which cast the Deeds Carillon bells practiced the art for six generations. Once a bell is cast, no alterations can be made in it. If a true tone is not achieved the work must be done over.

The largest bell in the chandelier of 32 bells in the Deeds Carillon weighs 7,000 pounds, and the smallest 250 pounds. They are cast in bronze and the total weight of all the bells and the chandelier is 32 tons.

Hours of planning and consultation with architects and the bell casters went into the building of the Deeds Carillon.

Starting with the instruction from Mrs. Deeds that the thirty-two bells in the Deeds Carillon must all be exposed to view, the architects, after long study and investigation, were able to carry out her wishes. The Deeds Carillon is the first tower to have all the bells mounted entirely in the open, thus insuring greater carrying power and purest, unrestricted beauty of tone. Such a departure from the old method of construction required a complete rechecking of the science of carillon tower design and bell placement.

Like Colonel Deeds, Mrs. Deeds was a perfectionist. She visioned the ideal structure, and the architects, Reinhard, Hofmeister & Walquist of New York, designers of Rockefeller Center, met every requirement. The landscaping surrounding the tower was in the hands of Olmstead Brothers of Boston, foremost in their field.

An unusual feature of the design is the so-called entasis of the sides of the tower in which they were reduced toward the top as much as eighteen inches, not in a straight line but by means of a curve which bows three inches from top to bottom. The purpose of this is not to make the sides bulge but to correct the optical illusion of pinching in and actually making the sides look straight. This was the device employed by the ancient Greeks for the same purpose in the design of their classic columns.

The stone shafts of the Carillon are built around a steel core.

A mass of scaffolding was a requisite in building the Carillon.

Moving the bells from the freight cars which brought them to Dayton and hanging them in position were operations which called for great skill.

The impressive array of the 32 bells in the Carillon arranged at its base just previous to being placed in position.

The Carillon tower, built of granite, steel, and limestone, soars skyward 151 feet from the base planted on a green and friendly hill. It is a shaft of precise beauty, dramatic in its simplicity, and terminating in noble arches. Suspended from the cross-shaped intersections of the arches, in full sight from all directions and visible for miles around, is the chandelier of bells. At the base of the Carillon is the Console Room. From here an elaborate electrical system plays the bells through the touch of the operator’s fingers at the console.

The actual ringing of the bells requires an unusual mechanism consisting of an electrical solenoid, delivering a blow of proper force for each size of bell. Suitable screens, designed so as not to interfere with the sound, are placed at the bottom of the mechanism so that each bell, when viewed from the ground, presents a uniform appearance, only the clapper being visible. This was the first time that such a type of construction in all its details had been followed, making possible a full, rich beauty of tone.

The console which controls the playing of the Carillon is located in a special room within the structure.

In kinship with the spiritual fervor and idealism built into the Carillon is the impressive bronze door bearing these inspirational words by Longfellow:

It was as if an earthquake rent

The hearthstones of a continent,

And made forlorn the households born

Of peace on earth good will to men.

And in despair I bowed my head

There is no peace on earth I said

For hate is strong and mocks the song

Of peace on earth good will to men.

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep

God is not dead nor does He sleep,

The wrong shall fail, the right prevail

With peace on earth good will to men.

The bells range in size from six feet in diameter with a weight of 7,000 pounds to the smallest one which is eighteen inches in diameter weighing 250 pounds. Of the thirty-two bells in the Carillon, twenty-three are speaking bells covering a range of two full octaves from B flat below middle C. On the speaking bells were inscribed the names of the Deeds family then living, while on the silent bells appear the names of six deceased members.

The Celestron was added several years after the Carillon was built. This is an amplifying system incorporating a number of advanced features and making it possible to play recorded music so that it can be heard over a wide area. The Celestron has no connection with the Carillon bells. Since the addition of the Celestron, most programs are divided between carillon music and recorded music.

This scene in the Carillon parking area has been duplicated many times, as Sunday afternoon programs and others have been presented.

Easter Dawn Services at the Carillon.

The same loving care that was lavished on the planning of the Carillon has found expression in the arrangement of the programs. Mrs. Deeds personally supervised the selection and arrangement of more than 400 musical selections so they could be played on the bells. The music has been transferred to sheets of white Bristol paper bearing the Carillon crest which are filed systematically for reference.

Thirty-five feet above the base of the Carillon tower is a balcony-like structure in bronze which contains a room twelve feet in diameter and six feet high. In this room are installed thirty-two powerful high-fidelity speakers of the most advanced design. On Easter morning, Christmas Eve, and other occasions, programs are broadcast directly to the countryside. Recorded music, performed by the world’s finest bands, choruses, orchestras and soloists, is to be heard with all its beauty for nearly a mile in every direction throughout the wide-open spaces about the Carillon tower. This Celestron is not connected in any way with the chandelier of bells of the Carillon. It is an additional instrument for the pleasure of those who love good music.

The science of bell-making is an old one. Sometimes it is necessary to cast twenty or thirty bells to fill an order for a ten-bell chime. The Deeds Carillon bells were made by The Meneely Bell Company of Troy, New York.