The 2000-pound Civic Center bell--moved four times
To the right of the entrance to the Laramie Plains Civic Center’s Gryphon Theater, there is a large bronze bell. It has two inscriptions. The first denotes the year that the bell came to Laramie, “Laramie High School August 1900.” The second appears to indicate when the bell was placed on a low concrete pedestal at the northeast corner of the Center before being moved inside, “Placed Senior Distinction Day Class of 1951.” But what connects the two?
Early school history
The first local public schoolhouse was built in 1869. approximately where the Connor Hotel building is today. Eventually, a larger school was needed.
On January 10, 1878, the Laramie Sentinel newspaper announced a meeting to discuss building a new school. Citizens at the meeting agreed; a follow up meeting was scheduled.
On February 5, that meeting was held to discuss the potential new school. It concluded with a recommendation to the Albany County School Board to go ahead with construction in a location most beneficial to the entire community. The school board must have anticipated approval–the next day the choice of architect and design was announced.
The design was by Cheyenne architect R. W. Gordon in the “Norman Style.” Gordon was also to be the construction supervisor. The two-story building was structured to accommodate 1,000 students and atop the second floor was a large cupola to house a bell.
Bonds totaling $30,000 were authorized and eight bids were submitted. The winning bid was by F. Gumry for $28,765. Gumry’s bid was not the lowest, but he was likely chosen because of his experience in building the original Albany County Courthouse in 1871.
In 1878 the school board decided on a location on Garfield St. and paid the Union Pacific Company $1,795 for all of block 212. That is the current location of the Laramie Plains Civic Center, between 7th and 8th Streets.
The location was challenged by West Side residents as being too far for their children to walk let alone cross the Union Pacific tracks. In a rhetorical flourish, Sentinel editor Hayford wrote, “The new site, it seems to us, is further away from nearly all the children in the district than the old, and the schoolhouse located there will be about as much an ornament to Fort Sanders and Cheyenne as to our city.”
Despite concerns, ground was broken on April 22 and a corner stone dedication held on June 24 with speeches by Wyoming Territory Governor John Wesley Hoyt and Laramie Attorney Stephen Wheeler Downey.
By September 24, the second story of the building was complete and likely a bell was placed in the cupola then. At the end of January 1879 pupils were called to school by the large bell and began the 1879 winter school term in a brand-new schoolhouse.
The school bell cracks
In April 1900, the school board was informed that the bell had cracked. The Laramie Republican reported on May 8 that the bell could no longer be heard in the “more remote parts of city” and was indispensable to call children to start the school day.
The paper noted that the old bell weighed 1,800 pounds and was purchased for $800 and that a new bell was likely to be more expensive. At the next school board meeting, an expenditure of $1,000 was authorized to procure a new bell. On May 12 the school board secretary was instructed to get bids for a new bell which would weigh somewhere between 1000-2000 pounds.
A new 2,000-pound bell was ordered on July 3, and with a $350 credit for the old bell, which was returned to the bell factory for recasting, the school board paid $450. The Holliday Company was awarded the contract to install the bell when it arrived.
The new bell came from the Meneely Bell Company of Troy New York, the same company that cast the 1878 bell and the bells in St. Matthews’ Cathedral. When the bell arrived on August 27, 1900. The Holliday team removed it from the train car and placed it in the cupola on August 29. Despite being similar in appearance, the 1900 bell is not a replica of the Liberty Bell.
The bell disappears
By the late 1920s it was apparent that the 1878 schoolhouse was insufficient for the needs of the district. In 1928, an election was held to authorize $250,000 to build an addition to the old schoolhouse. Approved by wide margin, the district board selected local architect Wilbur Hitchcock’s design.
Hitchcock’s plan included an “L” shaped addition with classrooms, an auditorium and gymnasium. It also kept the 1878 schoolhouse albeit with major renovations. The old red brick was overlayed with plaster, the windows openings were modified and the pyramid shaped roof with its cupola was replaced with a flat surface.
Now there was no place for the 1900 bell to ring out its call. A circa 1930 Laramie aerial photograph shows the expanded schoolhouse with the alterations to the original building. The 1900 bell is not seen. Modern satellite imagery confirms that none of the three objects on the roof in the 1930s photo is the 1900 bell. Street level photographs from the 1930s do not show the bell outside.
However, those of us who went to high school or junior high school in the 1950s through the 1970s, likely remember that 1900 bell on a low cement pedestal at the northeast corner of the building. As noted, it was placed there by the Laramie High School Class of 1951.
So where was that bell between 1929 when the addition was added and the 1878 building modified? Current Laramie resident Harold Foster graduated with the class of 1951, and he remembers the drive to collect funds to place the bell on the pedestal. He does remember that the bell was moved from another location but is not sure from where.
Perhaps the logical place for the bell to be stored until 1951 was in what is now the space between the original building and the surrounding addition. But a search of Laramie newspapers during the remodel of the 1878 building does not offer any clues. Also perplexing is that the bell, no longer in use, was not melted down in a WWII scrap metal drive.
Finally, there was a discussion about the future location of the bell after junior high classes were moved to a new location, and the Civic Center took over the building. An agreement between the school district and the Civic Center confirmed the bell would remain at Center.
However, in 2000, faculty members at Laramie High school argued that the bell should be moved there since it had been so closely associated with Laramie High. Civic Center personnel argued it should remain where it is. The Civic Center argument carried the day and the bell remains near the entrance of the Gryphon Theater today.
By Kim Viner
The 2000-pound bell that once hung in the cupola atop Laramie’s 1879 East Side School, still standing in the center portion of the Laramie Plains Civic Center. Additions starting in 1928 have added to the older building and removed the bell’s cupola. The bell was once located at the northeast corner of the Civic Center when it was placed there in 1951 before being moved inside.
The enlargement of a plaque on it shows when it was placed on a pedestal outside. Now it has been moved inside the north lobby of a newer portion of the building but the date of that move is uncertain.
Photos credits to: Kim Viner