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Kilgo Quad tower now has a bell, but early photographs show an
empty belfry, indicating that the bell was not installed during
the construction of the West Campus.
According to the records of the Red Friars, a men's honorary secret
society that disbanded in 1971, the bell belonged to the society.
Furman G. McLarty '27, a member of the Red Friars, purchased the
bell from an antiques dealer in Oxford, England, during his time
there as a Rhodes Scholar in 1929. The bell is thought to have
been part of a set of bells at Cherley Myncherry, the Benedictine
Priory of Littlemore in Oxfordshire.
The bell was shipped to Durham, but remained in storage until 1950
when the Friars undertook "to get the bell hung in the belfry
of Kilgo Court." According to the Friars' minutes, the bell
was "installed atop the tower in house J with an electric
ringing device." The installation took place sometime between
October 1 and November 5, 1950. Evidently the bell has been rung
by hand at least once since the Friars disbanded, and a rope remains
attached to its clapper, but the electric ringing device is long
gone.
www.lib.duke.edu/archives
--Tom Harkins
Associate University Archivist
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