Inside Furman is published monthly during the school year by the Furman University Department of Marketing and Public Relations. For story ideas, e-mail John Roberts, editor.
Renovating: from bells to bell tower
You've seen the scaffolding and probably wondered what's going on.From top to bottom, from bells to Bell Tower, Furman's signature building is undergoing a massive $600,000 renovation
The project, scheduled to be completed early next year, includes new stucco and landscaping and the restoration of the 60-bell carillon. A commemorative walkway to recognize those who contributed to the project is also being constructed.
The original tower, erected in 1854 and located in downtown Greenville at the old men's campus, was razed to make room for a shopping center after the university moved to its current location. “There are stories out there that it was taken down piece by piece,” says Steve Long, Facilities Services estimator and project manager. “But that is not true.”
Some pieces of the original tower, he explains, were laid in the foundation of the new tower, which was built in 1965. It was an exact replica of the original down to the inch according to Carl Clawson, who was a resident engineer and director of planning and construction at Furman from 1955 to 1983.
Clawson, who was the driving force behind the Bell Tower replication project and the current renovation project, should know.
Because the original tower had no blueprints, Clawson spent hours at the old campus meticulously counting steps and creating detailed sketches to account for every feature of the landmark, from foundation to roof — all 88 feet of it. “Eighty-eight feet, one inch,” he proudly corrects himself.
According to Elcainey Baker, a project manager for Facilities Services, some students have made similar attempts at exploring the tower since the scaffolding went up this fall. In fact, Public Safety caught some students on the scaffolding in late September.
Currently, a chain-link fence stands at the gate. The brick pathway that once led to the tower is gone, as are the trees that were removed in order to set up the scaffolding that now encases the tower.
But despite many drastic changes in appearance, the Bell Tower is still a familiar place for anyone that has visited campus. It is hard to imagine it anywhere else. But without Clawson's strong opposition to constructing a scaled-down model in the rose garden, it would have been.
“Funding was the real problem in those days,” says Clawson, “so we thought the best we could do was build a nice scaled-down replica that would be about 52 feet high.” Long says that Clawson was “instrumental in getting the tower placed where it is today on the peninsula” that, originally, was only six feet across and had to be expanded to accommodate the size of the tower.
Inside the tower is a spiral staircase that leads to the second floor, where a metal gate was mounted in the early 1990s to keep students out. From the third floor, damage from 40 years of wind, rain, ice and Carolina sun can be seen in the crumbling stucco trim. Time and weather have also taken their toll on the bells of the carillon, which have hung in silence inside the tower for more than a decade.
“It'll be so good to hear the bells again,” says Clawson. When completed the carillon will toll every 15 minutes, which has been met with opposition by some students. “That could be kind of annoying if it's really loud and I'm asleep,” says sophomore Caroline Wells. Long says he is aware that current students (and many employees) have never heard the bells, but he points out, “Once you hear it, it becomes something you expect.”
The Department of Music has already taken great interest in the new bells and, according to Baker, helped encourage the renovation project. “The department was very interested in having the ability to play [the carillon],” he says. A system is being installed that will allow any student or professor with the ability to do so to plug in a laptop keyboard to the base of the tower and play the bells.
The university is planning a rededication ceremony in the spring..