Denver museum fighting for historical bronze fire bell, now in a Pueblo church
DENVER (KDVR) — A Denver museum has been fighting for the last 14 years to bring a piece of the city’s history back home after a 140-year-old bell, which was presumed missing, turned up at a church in Pueblo.
“The bell itself is a 1,600-pound bell, which is quite large and it’s got a tone that even the bell company said is kind of a special tone,” Dan Farley said.
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Farley is the executive director of the Denver Firefighters Museum, which highlights the history of the fire service since its beginnings in Denver. Part of the museum’s exhibit features two photographs of Denver’s Fire Station 1, located at Broadway and Colfax Avenue.
Fire Station 1 was torn down in 1909. The bell was housed in a belfry atop the building.
“Everybody was volunteer back then, so you ring the bell to bring it to the public’s attention (that) something is going on (and) we need help,” retired Denver firefighter Danny Perez said.
According to museum staff, the bell could be heard as far away as Loretto Heights in southwest Denver.
“How many lives do you think this bell saved back in the 1800s and early 1900s? So that bell to Denver saved countless lives when it rang and now it’s sitting silent in the dirt in a church storage area for no explainable reason to me,” Farley said.
Pueblo diocese ‘open’ to returning bell
Farley said the museum discovered St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church in Pueblo had been using the bell for about 100 years until their bell tower came crashing down in 2010.
“At that time we offered the church $8,000 and they felt that the bell was worth more than that so they didn’t give it to us,” Farley said.
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A few months later, another piece of the museum’s collection was damaged and the $8,000 offer for the bell was rescinded to help pay for restoration.
In an email to the head priest at the time, the museum wrote, “Please keep us in mind if, in the future you do decide to sell the bell. We would appreciate first right of refusal.”
Farley said the museum has not heard from the church since.
“Now it’s sitting in the dirt and it’s been in the dirt for 14 years,” he said.
“Obviously the church has significant feelings with this bell or they wouldn’t still possess it. They cared for it for years, as I understand. But the fire department looks at it a little bit different. We look at it as an artifact. As a history of this city,” Perez said.
On Tuesday, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Pueblo sent FOX31 a statement that said, in part, “We are open for conversation and would like to see the bell go to its proper place in the Denver Fire Department.”
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It is unclear what the process of returning the bell to Denver will entail, what restoration it will require and how it will be displayed going forward. However, museum staff say those challenges pale in comparison to the difficulties of securing the bell over the last few years.
“We don’t have a lot from that building. It doesn’t exist anymore and it was torn down over a century ago so having something more than photos … That’s just irreplaceable,” Denver Firefighters Museum deputy director Katie Karris said.
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