Huntington History

These days, many people carry a smart phone that gives them a private reminder of appointments and errands.  But before the advent of such devices, before the advent of wristwatches, and even before the mass production of affordable clocks, bells provided public reminders and alerts.

Huntington has had several notable bells intended to be heard far and wide.  The first was the bell procured to summon the faithful every Sunday morning to Old First Church.  The Town’s second church building was erected in 1715 on the site of the current Old First Church on Main Street across from Town Hall.  A small bell was soon acquired from England.

During the American Revolution, when Huntington was occupied by the British army, the bell was removed by the British troops.  Huntingtonian Zebulon Platt was a prisoner on the ship Swan in late 1777 and later reported having seen Huntington’s bell on that ship.  Nathaniel Williams arranged to retrieve the bell and in 1793, the bell was recast to include the motto “The Town Endures.”

While the bell was missing, the British had razed the church and used the timbers to build a fort in the Old Burying Ground.  The bell returned to service in the current church, which was built in 1784, and continued in use until the 1960s.  It is now on display in the church lobby.

About the time that the church bell was being restored, the Huntington Academy was built across the street.  The new schoolhouse included a tower for a school bell.  The Academy was replaced in 1858 by the Union School.  Since a new school needs a new bell, the small bell from the academy was retired.  It soon found a new use as a fire bell behind the firehouse on Wall Street.

Fast forward fifty years.  In 1909, the Union School was torn down to makee way for a new state-of-the-art brick high school (today’s Town Hall).   This new construction gave rise to some nostalgia: a committee was formed to create a display in the new building commemorating the old Academy.  The committee decided to hang a picture of the Academy in the new building and it was thought that the old Academy bell would be a terrific addition to the display.  The committee asked the fire department if they would part with the bell.

The old Academy bell had proved inadequate to alert fire fighters when they were needed—it could not be heard outside the heart of the village—and had been relegated to calling members to meetings.   The fire department, therefore, did not object to returning the bell.  The department decided to inscribe the bell with the years it served as a fire bell as well as the years it called children to the old Academy.  Newspaper reports in the 1950s indicate that the bell was on display in the high school building on Main Street.  But its current whereabouts are unknown.

The fire department had decided in 1898 to replace the old school bell with a bell loud enough to “awaken the soundest sleeper living within a mile radius of the village.”  The new 730-pound bell was hung in a new tower behind the Wall Street firehouse.

When the fire department moved to its new building on Main Street in 1911, a modern electric siren was installed.  It was later suggested that the 730-pound bell acquired in 1898 be used for brush fires and the electric siren for building fires.  With the advent of suburbia, the number of brush fires decreased.  The department decided to use the bell as a memorial.  On Memorial Day 1951, the fire department dedicated the new memorial to its members who had died in World War II.  Placed outside the Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Building, which at that time was the home of the Huntington Library, the bell was topped with a spread wing eagle that has since disappeared.

The bell used for fifty years in the Union School (1858-1909), can now be seen in the lobby of the current high school building on Oakwood Road.  When the Union School was torn down in 1909, its bell was moved to a school in Huntington Station.  It soon found its way into storage, however.  From 1967 to 1985, it was located in the courtyard of what is now the Jack Abrams School.  It then was moved to Woodhull School as part of the school district Heritage Museum organized by Jack Abrams.  Since 2004, the bell has been on display in the high school lobby.

Having three of the town’s oldest public bells is impressive.  But if only we could find the missing bell from the Huntington Academy.