A church bell that’s believed to be one of the first to toll over the village of Crete will find its way home this spring after a deal worked out between the Crete Historical Society and Crete Township officials.
The bell, with clapper still attached, has been mounted on a frame outside the Crete Township office on Wood Street, a couple of blocks in from the town’s main crossroads of Main and Exchange streets.
Once the historical society purchased an old antiques store along Exchange, it was fitting the bell should be brought over, said Ryan Martin, the historical society’s president. After all, before it was an antiques store, part of the building was the 1853 Crete Congregational Church, where the bell marked the start of services for generations of churchgoers.
The church operated in the building for 110 years, with the congregation moving out in 1963 and selling it to private owners. A few businesses operated out of the church building in subsequent years, including Marketplace Antiques, which owned the place in the 1980s when a roofing project necessitated the removal of the old belfry, and with it, the bell.
“It sat out front of the antiques store for months,” Martin said. “It was for sale.”
The Crete Lions Club ensured this artifact from the village’s earliest days didn’t leave town, coming up with $500 that Phyllis Monks, past president of the historical society, used to bargain with the antiques dealers for its acquisition.
“We didn’t know what it was worth,” Monks said. “And they weren’t about to give it away to us.”
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“The historical society didn’t want it to leave Crete and go somewhere where they didn’t even know the province of it,” Martin said.
Society members earmarked the bell for the town historical museum, which did not yet exist but seemed like a near-future possibility as the village marked its sesquicentennial in 1986. The near future stretched into the far future and the bell ended up in front of the Crete Township office, with a nice informational plaque but a location away from the main drag.
Then, last year, the reinvigorated Crete Historical Society used some of the funds it had raised decades ago to purchase the shuttered antiques store, an conglomeration of connected structures that combined the old Congregational Church as well as an early train depot. It was time to bring the bell home.
Historical society members met with Crete Township Supervisor Michael Liccar, who agreed to the bell’s move, albeit with a stipulation the township will retain ownership of it.
“If we ever go under, God forbid, then it goes back to the township,” Martin said. “As long as the bell comes back home, it’s OK that the township owns it. It should be owned by everyone who lives in Crete Township.”
Monks said she is “elated” the bell will return to its original home.
“This is fabulous,” she said, “really, it’s a miracle.”
The future Crete History Museum still needs a lot of work before it can open, and an architectural survey is planned later this month. Martin said depending on what is needed, the opening could be more than a year away, though certain portions of the building could open sooner.
Eventually, he’d like to install a belfry back on the church, but for now they’re planning a spot out front along Exchange, where the bell can be the first exhibit to introduce new generations to one of the oldest sounds in town.