Western Springs’ School Bell Lives On
Exactly 110 years ago, a 350-pound bell was placed in the cupola of the Grand Avenue School. While it no longer calls children to class, residents can still experience the thrill of ringing the bell.
During the earliest years of the village’s history, there were no radios or telephones to summon volunteer firefighters to the scene of a fire. As a result, a bell tower was built at Grand and Chestnut Avenue, the same corner as the Grand Avenue elementary school. The bell was rung whenever there was a report of a fire. By 1903, the village had installed a “modern” fire alarm system. So, the 26-inch, 350-pound bell was removed from its original location and placed inside the stone tower shown to the left in the second photo. The cost to move the bell was a hefty $300 ($7,900 in 2013 dollars). There, the bell would ring every morning to summon students to class. However, in 1906 the 20-year-old building was enlarged, resulting in the …
