‘Very disappointed’: Museum’s historic bell hit with graffiti

Employees at the Sault Ste. Marie Museum are voicing their displeasure after the building’s historic tower bell was vandalized with graffiti last week.

Constructed in 1912, the 370-kg. cast iron bell once rang from inside of the museum’s clock tower and could be heard as far away as Gore Street. The growing hum of traffic drowned out the bell’s sound, so the museum eventually chose to stop ringing it.

The bell sat in storage for years before the museum collaborated with the Municipal Heritage Committee during the pandemic to proudly display the artifact on the museum’s front lawn.

Museum executive director Will Hollingshead says he noticed the bell had been tagged with graffiti last Friday when he went into work.

“We’re very disappointed,” he says. “I know vandalism is a big thing downtown, so I’m not surprised this happened. I figured eventually something like that might come about.”

“I know it’s placed in a public space, but if you look at tons of other Ontario cities, they do similar things with that. It looks really nice out front and it’s the perfect place for it, especially when we’re telling people about the history of the museum.”

Hollingshead told SooToday the museum is working actively with the Municipal Heritage Committee and the Downtown Association to see what remediation efforts can be made to the bell without causing further damage.

“The main concern is it’s around 110 years old — it is a historic artifact,” he says. “It’s made of bronze, so it’s pretty withstanding, but we don’t want to just start polishing it and then have one spot where there’s obvious repair done, and the rest looks bad. We also don’t want to get the chemical composition wrong and then further deteriorate the bronze with it.”

“Currently, we’re trying to go through certain conservation standards set out by the government and various museum organizations to see what kind of solvents might work in that regard.”

While the museum doesn’t intend to move the bell away from its current spot, Hollingshead says they are considering adding more surveillance around the building.

“I think the bell would stay outside — that’s the most accessible place for it to be,” he says. “If anything, I think this drew more awareness of it being there, so more people might keep an eye on it or realize it’s actually there. I don’t see it going inside or moving.”

“We do have surveillance at the museum, but unfortunately we don’t have any that goes out to the front of the building, so that might be part of our discussion as well.”