Denny's Bell Denny's Bell Is Now Chained
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OOW&lli~ , Today from the belfry the panorama is full of buildings from neighborhood houses to the city skyscrapers. Denny's Bell Denny's Bell is now chained. ou'U need a guide with special keys and two a foundry in Troy, N.Y. The bell survived the intrepid In 1893, just in time for the international crash. The When the Blethen Chimes burned to the ground It beckoned students ladders to reach the catwalk and trap door that voyage around Cape Hom, only to reach Elliott Bay r~~Tsc~u;d ~~~~;~o; ~~d~ ~~ ~~~~~£ boom went bust and Arthur Denny's younger in 1949, The Times reminded its readers, " The Yopens to the belfry of the University of in a dense fog. Here the carrier missed Yesler's now capped. The dearcut hills and peninsulas which brother went bankrupt. ancient bell is still in its graceful belfry and once a to class, resounded Washington's Denny Hall. But the shaky cUmb wharf and ran aground in the tideflats south of King overlap into the distance are now thoroughly year only, with the gallantry of an old maestro, it reaches to a panorama of the city. It also puts you Street. Temporarily stuck in the sand and fog, the dappled with trees, houses and towers. ahe:::~ ~e;'vi~~~e:u=~ ~~s:1.~~~e~~ sings out on homecoming day to reawaken face to face with Denny's Bell. captain could not see Seattle, but he could still call to On the left of both panoramas and across build the necessary symbols of statehood." slumbering traditions." for fires and The bell was put there in 1895, the year Denny it. He used the bell's first penetrating clangs to get Portage Bay is the north end of Capitol Hill. In the Above the Latona Bridge is the southern point of Today Denny's Bell is chained, and replaced by Hall was completed as the first building on the new the town's attention and was rescued. historical photograph it is joined, on the right, by the Wallingford, now Gasworks Park. (In the contempo four loudspeakers broadcasting bell-like sounds on the Fourth of July campus. The hall was named after the Seattle Latona Bridge to the sparsely settled neighborhoods rary photograph this is obscured by the Freeway the hour. Uke the old bell claps, these taped sounds pioneer, Arthur Denny. ato:Sth~~~~~~(J~~~ity~~~y~~ ~7t: ~~ of Wallingford, Latona and Brooklyn, now the cross Portage Bay and bounce against Capitol Hill. Olympic Hotel. From there it resounded through 34 University District. Seattle annexed these communi· ~~~d~~n~~~~~::n~~~dg:y~~~~An~: They are even heard across the freeway to its t:: . ~~dw:~a~~e~f: :i~~~o~~ ~~~~ years of classes and other local eXcitements from · ties in 1891. The Latona Bridge was completed in West Seattle peninsula. as far as Renton. fires to the Fourth of July. 1892, slightly west of the present University Bridge. Denny's Bell rang the class hours until 1912 ~a~nJ~~~.~~~e~~.r~~~t R~n~;~sh hour traffic. WRITTEN BY PA<IL DORPAT But the bell was first heard in 1861 from the From the belltower atop its contemporary home David Denny's electric trolley was extended into a when the Blethen Chimes, a gift from The Times vicinity of the Kingdome. Strapped to the forward in Denny Hall, practically everything has changed publisher, took up the tolling from a converted water deck of a carrier, Denny's Bell ca"l.e to Seattle from except the basic topography. The nearly vacant r:tct~:~' . ~~n~~a~~~ts ~a=~i~r:~u: tower. The old belt was reserved for ceremonial use. • PACIFIC 6 PACIFIC The Seattle Tim~ June 13, 1982 .