New Bell Tower For Fitzpatrick Park Arrived In Bayonne, Memorial For Slovak Immigrants Of St Joseph’s Church
New Bell Tower to Arrive in Bayonne in Early October
Mayor Jimmy Davis announced that the new bell tower for Fitzpatrick Park in Bayonne is expected to arrive in Bayonne on or about Wednesday, October 5.
The thirty-five-ft. tower will be the new home for three bells that used to ring at the former St. Joseph’s Church of Bayonne
The bell tower will be coming from the Verdin Bell Company in Cincinnati, Ohio, where the bells have been polished, refurbished, and retoned.
A fourth bell from the former church will be placed inside City Hall at a later date. Details concerning the fourth bell will be announced after arrangements have been made.
Mayor Davis said, “I am very proud that our Administration saved the bells of St. Joseph’s Church for future generations of residents to enjoy.
Architectural Drawing of Bayonne clock tower. Image Credit – City of Bayonne
“They will serve as a memorial to the Slovak immigrants of St. Joseph’s Parish who helped build Bayonne in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.”
A clock with four faces, one on each side, will be a prominent feature of the tower. The bells will be mounted inside the tower.
They will be active bells, capable of making sounds along with music or tolling for the hour.
The bells can be programmed to ring at specific times. As Public Works Director Tom Cotter explained, “We will have a clock tower with all the bells and whistles.”
After the tower is in its new home, it will be hooked up to the electric line in the park.
According to Director Cotter, the electricity will be tested to make sure that the clock and the bells work. He said, “Hopefully, within a few days after its installation, the bell tower will be ready to use.”
If everything is in working order, a dedication ceremony will be held for the tower at Fitzpatrick Park on Tuesday, October 11, at 10:00 a.m.
The bell tower includes a weather vane on its top. This kind of bell tower is placed frequently in town squares and shopping districts across the country.
The bell tower’s location, Fitzpatrick Park, is named after former Mayor Francis G. Fitzpatrick Park, who served as Bayonne’s leader from 1962 to 1974.
Banner Image: Bell Tower Rendering. Image Credit – City of Bayonne
City of Bayonne
Bayonne is a community that retains many of the elements of a small town. One and two family homes, small apartment buildings, and small business predominate. There is a population of 62,000 people who take pride in their hometown and its history. Bayonne residents and their ancestors moved to the city from many parts of the world. During colonial times and the first century of the American Republic, the Dutch, British, and Africans were the first groups to arrive after the Native Americans. Subsequent waves of immigrants came from all over Europe, especially between the 1880s and the 1920s. In recent decades, sources of immigration have largely been represented from countries in Latin America, the Middle East, and Southeastern Asia. Each group has left its mark on the cultural, religious and political life of the community.
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