The old steel bell sits on a pedestal at the former Ames shovel works like some rare archaeological find.
It’s rusty and dirty. It may not have its original wooden moorings.
But it’s a buried treasure come to life for local historians.
This is the bell that tolled throughout the town of North Easton for more than 100 years.
It awoke factory workers for their pre-dawn shifts, called them to lunch at midday and sent them home to bed at curfew.
It was finally silenced in the early 1960s. Then it disappeared into local folklore.
Melanie Deware, chairman of the Easton historical commission, said she just knew the bell would be found when work began on a project to convert the complex into apartments.
“It’s the Holy Grail. When they said they had found it, I felt vindicated,” Deware said.
The 1,500-pound bell was discovered in late May after developer Beacon Communities started work on the project to convert Oliver Ames’ famed 19th century shovel shop into apartments while conserving its history.
Workers found it tucked away in the cupola of one of the machine shops. They carefully brought it down with a crane and mounted it on a wood frame for safekeeping.
According to its markings, the cast steel bell was made by Naylor Vickers & Company of Sheffield, England. The 1857 stamp matches the date of the building in which it was located.
“It is clear that the bell was kept functional into the modern period. I would guess due to wood rot the structure holding the bell from above, down to its bearings as well as the wheel which held the pull rope are all modern,” said Greg Galer of the Easton historical commission.
Historians hope to unearth more artifacts from the site of the 15 granite and wood buildings that hammered out most of the shovels used during the industrial age.
But the bell was the drum beat of the town long before people set their radios and iPods to get them up for work.
“It was the clock for North Easton Village,” Galer said.
The bell will be afforded a place of honor when work is completed on the $40 million project that will conserve the granite building exteriors and rooflines. It is expected to be completed by 2014.
By the time the official groundbreaking takes place Friday, June 8, there may be little ground left to break.
Bulldozers have been moving earth from Main Street to Oliver Street since Beacon signed the official ownership documents earlier this month.
Source: www.wickedlocal.com
Antique buggy, sleigh collection for sale in Maine - NECN
Poland auctioneer Jody McMorrow says he's never seen a collection quite like it.
The more than 40 sleighs and buggies from the 1800s and early 1900s were collected by Carl Huston Sr., a Lisbon Falls contractor who died last summer at age 77.
McMorrow says many of the items need work, but many show a craftsmanship not often seen these days.
They range in value from about $50 to several thousand dollars.
Huston's son tells the Sun Journal ( ) the collection is being sold because the family has no place to store it. Carl Huston Jr. says he thinks the collection helped his father connect to his youth on a farm.
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Information from: Sun-Journal, http://www.sunjournal.com
Source: www.necn.com
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