While a good number of Lewiston and Auburn’s historical bells are still ringing to this day, not all of them made it to the modern era. 

Below are six bells that no longer toll and in most cases whose fates are largely unknown. Based on speculation and the fate of other historical bells in Maine and the nation, most were likely sold or melted down.

Androscoggin Mill, 1860-1865

This Lewiston mill bell was deeply important to the community, as it was reportedly the largest bell in New England, weighing 10,000 pounds, according to a 1860 Lewiston Journal article. 

“Such a huge bell as that will send forth a peal of sounds that will shake the valleys and the hills and arouse all the sleepers within two or three miles,” the newspaper reported. 

Another Lewiston Journal article from the same year noted that the Henry N. Hooper & Co. bell was over 6 feet across the mouth and 5 feet tall. 

A later article, published in 1915 in the Lewiston Saturday Journal, stated that the bell would be struck every hour of the 12-hour workday, beginning at 6 a.m. and ending at 7 p.m. 

The article reported that the mill had three bells since 1860, two of which were cracked after they were hung. The last bell was hung in 1865. 

Information about the retirement of the bell, even with the closing of the mill, was unable to be found.

Continental Mill, 1867

A 1915 article describing the bells of Lewiston mentions the Continental Mill bell, which was cast in 1867 by the Henry N. Hooper & Co. The article states that the bell was originally hung at the top of a trestle in the yard of the old Porter Mill. 

It was then moved to the No. 2 Continental tower. “According to a recent visitor,” the article states, “in the old tower the tongue is nearly worn out, a significant token of the waning of a day when it was really a necessity in the community.”

Barker Mill, 1874

This mill bell, cast in 1874 by the W. Blake Company and H. W. Hooper of Boston, Massachusetts, was taken down in June 1942, according to a Lewiston Evening Journal article. “The bell in the tower of the old Barker Mill has sounded and echoed its own death knell,” the Journal wrote.

The bell was installed two years after the Auburn mill was built, “Sometimes in service, sometimes in muteness, always in readiness.”

It was reportedly donated to the War Production Board by the owner of the Venus Shoe Co., George Laganas, likely to be melted down.

Court Street Free Will Baptist Church, 1878

The life of this church’s bell was documented by an April 1897 article in the Lewiston Saturday Journal, which reported on the bells in Auburn. 

“Hard work, and lots of it, was put into the enterprise of getting a bell into the Court Street Free Baptist church, and to the beloved pastor, Elder Marriner, is given much of the credit,” the Journal reported.

The bell was manufactured by the Meneely Bell Foundry of Troy, New York, and weighed 1,704 pounds. It was purchased with the subscriptions and donations gathered from inside and outside the parish. 

The bell served as a fire alarm bell for a number of years in addition to church purposes. It was installed and rung for the first time in 1878.

It is unclear what happened to this bell after the Court Street Free Will Baptist Society joined with the Spring Street Baptist Church in 1930.

St. Patrick’s Church, 1887

In 1892, the St. Patrick’s Church bell in Lewiston was blessed by the Rev. Father Wallace. It was cast at the McShane Bell Foundry in Baltimore, Maryland, and, according to an 1892 article in the Journal, was the largest church bell in the state of Maine at the time, weighing about 5,500 pounds,  

The newspaper reported, “The bell upon the old Androscoggin Mill, though larger than this new one, will now have a powerful rival in the field of fame.”

The bell remained in its belfry when the decommissioned church was sold to Andrew Knight, a real estate developer, in 2014. In 2015, Knight sold the bell to Cowie Wine Cellars and Vineyards in Paris, Arkansas.

“I was just about out of cash, so I had to sell everything I could to pay the property taxes, the utilities, that sort of thing,” Knight said.

Frye Grammar School bell, 1867

The Lewiston Frye School bell was installed in the observatory in 1867 with the construction of the schoolhouse. It weighed 2,147 pounds and was made of metal at the Henry N. Hooper & Co. foundry, according to a 1867 report from the Journal. 

Throughout its life, the school bell lost its clapper of “tongue” a number of times. An 1894 Journal report states that the janitor “climbed upward to the tower and found that the bell was speechless.” 

In 1941, the bell was taken out of its tower because “it disturbs the neighbors; and its vibration causes the roof to leak.” Following its removal, alumni and teachers in the school started a campaign to save the bell from “exile” as the city’s department of education considered selling the bell.

The bell remained in storage until August 1945 when it was “taken out of retirement – to join in the impromptu Victory celebration. Mounted on a Public Works Department truck, the ancient bell rang out its joyous notes,” the Journal reported, referring to the announced end of World War II.

In 1949, the Lewiston Board of Finance voted not to sell the old bell, retaining it for “future use by the city.” 

It is unclear, however, if the bell was ever used by the city. Its current whereabouts could not be determined.