Photos: Hymns on High
Money for the $15,000 project was raised in a “Bells for Burls” campaign, honoring the late Mark “Burls” Burlingame who, with his wife, Beth, used to listen to the church music from the porch of their home, on the hill overlooking Altamont. “Burls took his last breath as the six o’clock bells played ‘I Surrender All,’” said Beth Burlingame. “That for me was an affirmation.” Rev. Zajac said that “I Surrender All” will be the first hymn played on the new chimes.
The Enterprise — Michael Koff
After climbing a tall ladder to perch in the steeple of St. John’s Church in Altamont, David Anderson crouches under a two-ton, 19th-Century bell to install a driver for new carillon. Anderson, who lives in Delaware, works for the chimes’ manufacturer, Schulmerich.
The Enterprise — Michael Koff
Maple Avenue stretches below in the view from the church steeple.
The Enterprise — Michael Koff
A weathered beam — the church was built in 1872 — supports parts of the old carillon, a system that stopped working when the steeple was struck by lightning in July. The new system is digital — the 1984 carillon used tapes, and the one before that, installed in 1952, used miniature hammers that struck tiny brass rods, the sound amplified by speakers — and plays music from Flemish bells, English bells, and traditional cast bells, as well as harp.
The Enterprise — Michael Koff
The church’s pastor, Gregory Zajac, lower right, uses a remote device, under Anderson’s watchful eye, to activate the chimes, which will tone at the hour and play songs at noon and 6 p.m. “Some people love them; some people hate them,” said Greg Lemmerman who worked on the carillon project.
The Enterprise — Michael Koff