(The Minnesota Star Tribune)
City Hall bells will go silent for renovation
Time will fly by silently this summer in downtown Minneapolis, when City Hall's clock tower bells cease chiming during a long-anticipated restoration project.
By ericroper
May 25, 2016 at 4:18PM
Above: Tony Hill, Chair of the Tower Bell Foundation, gives a tour of the bells at Minneapolis City Hall in 2004. (Joey McLeister)
Time will fly by silently this summer in downtown Minneapolis, when City Hall's clock tower bells cease chiming during a long-anticipated restoration project.
The Friday bell concerts that broadcast a variety of tunes into popular plazas nearby City Hall during the summer lunch hours won't happen after Memorial Day, said the Tower Bell Foundation, which arranges the performances. Nor will the bells chime on the quarter-hour and the hour as they do now.
Lunch goers hoping to get their bell fix can hear concerts Friday and Monday at noon. Musicians control the 15 bells from a keyboard in the City Hall rotunda.
The 24-foot City Hall clock faces are among the largest in the world. The restoration of the 110-year-old timepiece primarily involves replacing deteriorating metal frames and clock face panels.
The project will also eliminate the neon that has illuminated the clock hands since 1949. That will be replaced with backlighting, the original method of illumination.
Tony Hill, chair of the Tower Bell Foundation, said the bells will also be inspected during the project. The clock gets its time signal from the bells, which is why they must be disconnected.
Since the work could take four months, the foundation said there may not be able to perform any summer concerts this year.
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