By Tim Tanton, member at East End UMC
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Ten pieces of Tennessee history were lifted by crane from the bell tower of the former Tulip Street United Methodist Church building on Dec. 13.
The 10 bronze bells that had hung in the church tower for more than a century were originally cast for the state’s Centennial Exposition in 1897. After being carefully removed, they were placed on a flatbed truck for a journey to Cincinnati, Ohio, where they will be refurbished.
When they return to Nashville, the bells will be placed back in the tower, as the former Tulip Street church at Sixth and Russell streets becomes the new home of East End United Methodist Church. East End is restoring the former church building, and it has launched a separate $400,000 fundraising campaign to save the bells.
The removal and restoration of the bells represents a historic moment not only for The United Methodist Church in Middle Tennessee but for the state. Along with the Parthenon in Nashville’s Centennial Park, they are among the few surviving vestiges of the Tennessee Centennial Exposition. “We knew that we had something that was of unique value,” said the Rev. Brandon Baxter, pastor of East End United Methodist Church. With the community significance of the Tulip Street building itself, the bells were a bonus that tied in with state history, he said. “There just aren’t that many big pieces left from the Centennial Exposition.”
The bells became a familiar part of the life of the neighborhood.
“They rang out for well over a hundred years in this neighborhood, as a sign for marking the times of the year … but also significant moments in the history of this location,” Baxter said. Those moments include weathering the East Nashville fire of 1916 and later a 1998 tornado that damaged the church – and the melody of “Amazing Grace” on the bells gave hope to the surrounding neighborhood.
It’s a history that was almost cut short following the Tennessee Centennial Exposition. “The state was really afraid they were going to have to melt down the bells … because they didn’t know what to do with them,” Baxter said, citing newspaper articles from that time.
After an Ohio company put in a bid to buy the bells and melt them down, the Tulip Street congregation raised $1,350 in 15 minutes during a Sunday service, according to a report in The Nashville American newspaper at the time. Adjusted for inflation, that would equal almost $53,000 today. With a fundraising effort that galvanized adults and children alike, the Tulip Street congregation bought the bells in April 1898 for just over $2,000 – or $78,000 in 2025 dollars.
The church tower hadn’t been built for the bells, which total more than 6 tons, but it was determined that the structure could support them, said David Bone, an East End member.
By restoring the Tulip Street property, the East End congregation is also resurrecting part of its own history. The Tulip Street congregation had planted East End Methodist Church in 1889. East End’s historic church building on Holly Street was all but destroyed in a March 2020 tornado, and the congregation has been worshipping in a nearby school auditorium and elsewhere since then. Meanwhile, Tulip Street’s sanctuary has stood unused since 2017, when declining membership led to the church’s closure.
“When we realized that our mother church building needed a congregation again … it seemed like a God thing in some ways that this home was here waiting for us,” Baxter said. The shared history of the two churches gives the bell restoration project added significance. “Our great-great-great-grandparents went to this church and bought these bells,” Bone said. “It’s our ancestors that built this church.”
Suzanne and Tony Curtis of Nashville were part of a small crowd that watched the removal of the bells. Longtime members of Tulip Street, they were married there in 1984. Suzanne, who was baptized in the sanctuary in 1958, had opportunities as a girl to play the bells.
“I was about 8 years old the first time I remember being in the tower and playing the bells,” she said. “Throughout my childhood, it was always an adventure to climb the steep circular stairwell, which led to the bells.
“During those years in the 1960s and ‘70s, the youth of the church called the community to hear God’s Word by ringing the bells before church services began,” she said. Asked what it was like standing under the bells, she replied with a laugh: “Oh, they were loud.” The refurbishment of the bells is expected to take four to six months, Bone said. The work is being done by the Verdin Company, in operation since 1842. Verdin has the original bill of sale for the bells from the Vanduzen Bell Foundry, which cast the bells and has since closed.
East End has set a $400,000 fundraising goal for cleaning and restoring the set of bells, which comprise nine stationary and one swinging bell, as well as repairing and strengthening the tower and modernizing the ringing system.
The campaign also includes buying four additional bells, said Laura Scott, East End member. The new bells, which would come from the Royal Eijsbouts Bell Foundry in Asten, Netherlands, would enable the church to play a wider range of songs.
Bone envisions the bells being used to play not only hymns but also other music. For example, if a musical artist is performing at nearby Nissan Stadium – a major entertainment venue that has hosted top-tier acts – the church could play some of that artist’s songs on the bells.
Saving the bells arose as a separate project beyond the restoration of the Russell Street property, which has been a major financial undertaking for East End’s congregation. “So we are looking outside of the church and church members to fund this,” Bone said, “since it is a piece of Tennessee and Nashville history and has been such a part of the community for a hundred years.”
Said Baxter: “You don’t have many bell towers left in the world anymore, at least in the United States. To hear those bells ring again, the history of the past will ring out in them, but they also will portend hope for the future.”
More information on the Restore the Bells project is available at https://restorethebells.com/.
Drone footage captured by Jonathan Stallings and Chris Cummings
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