Church Bell Chime Console from San Rafael’s First Presbyterian Church, c. 1891.
Donated by the First Presbyterian Church of San Rafael in 2021.
A gift from Ella Nichols Park in 1890 secured the construction of a new stone church for the growing Presbyterian congregation of San Rafael at the corner Fifth and E Streets just a year after her nearby Falkirk Mansion was built. At its dedication in 1896, the Marin Journal described the new building as “one of surpassing beauty…the most impressive and ornamental structure in the city.”
Capt. and Mrs. Robert Dollar, the new residents of Falkirk at the time, gifted a set of McShane chimes for the church’s bell tower in 1913. The bells and chime console, along with six stained-glass windows, were placed in storage as the building was demolished in 1971. Most recently, the chime console had been on display inside the new church’s sanctuary; the bells themselves on view outside.
McShane Bell Company, founded in 1856, has manufactured chimes and carillons (chimes with more than 23 bells) for over 300,000 churches, cathedrals, municipal buildings and universities around the world. Throughout the Victorian period, McShane bells received the highest honors for their beautiful tones at multiple fairs and exhibitions, including the Centennial International Exposition in 1876.
Our piece has 10 wooden batons that would have been pressed to ring its corresponding bell. Church bells are most often sounded to announce the hour (the word “clock” comes from the Latin word cloca, meaning bell). For nearly 60 years, residents of San Rafael marked the passage of their day by the sound of these chimes, ringing out from the church’s old stone bell tower.
Sources: Marin History Museum, www.bells.org, www.mcshanebell.com
