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The bell has been removed and renovations started on the Springs Presbyterian Church steeple.
The bell has been removed and renovations started on the Springs Presbyterian Church steeple.
The bell has been removed and renovations started on the Springs Presbyterian Church steeple.
The bell has been removed and renovations started on the Springs Presbyterian Church steeple.
The bell has been removed and renovations started on the Springs Presbyterian Church steeple.
The bell has been removed and renovations started on the Springs Presbyterian Church steeple.
The bell has been removed and renovations started on the Springs Presbyterian Church steeple.
After many months of planning, the “Save Our Steeple Fund” project at the Springs Presbyterian Church in East Hampton is underway.
With the bell removed, Ron Webb Construction Company is stripping the front of the 1882 Presbyterian Church Chapel on Old Stone Highway and reconstructing the church steeple, which has been in need of repair for many years.
The church bell was installed in 1884, two years after the construction of the church. Sineus Edwards, who owned a trading sloop anchored in Accabonac Harbor within sight of the chapel, sailed Long Island Sound to the Hudson River and up to Albany to pick up the bell and bring it back to the site. It was his donation to the chapel.
Traditionally the bell has been rung one half hour before service on Sunday. Through the years the bell was rung to summon men for firefighting and if a resident died the bell would toll once for every year of that person’s life. At the end of the Vietnam War it rang into the night and stopped only after the bell ringer was exhausted.
On September 11, 2002, it was rung at the four times marking the four planes taking the lives of many the year before. Recently, it was rung with the number of East Hampton residents who lost their lives to COVID-19.
Donations to help with renovations may be made at SpringsPC.org/donate.
Staff Writer on Nov 29, 2021