Friday, April 23, 2004
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World Peace Bell Monument
By
Kendra Leonard
When the day is still and quiet, you can stand in Cincinnati and hear the sonorous tones of the World Peace Bell ringing across the river at noon in Newport. Cast by the Cincinnati-based Verdin Bell Company in Nantes, France, it is the world’s largest free-swinging bell, weighing in at 66,000 pounds. Created for the International Day of Peace in 2000, the bell is decorated with symbols of unity and progress. Children hold hands beneath a starry sky, while the flare of the bell is dated to recognize the millennium.
The bell project was the brainchild of Wayne Carlisle, a Cincinnati businessman who single-handedly conceived of the bell and arranged for its creation and placement in Newport. Cast at the Verdin foundries in France, the bell enjoyed a tour up the Mississippi complete with stops and parties at a dozen cities along the way before being offloaded in Kentucky. The bell is borne aloft in a slender glass tower at the corner of York and Fourth Streets, where on the eve of 2000 an estimated 35,000 celebrants thronged to hear its peals for the New Year and the next thousand years.
Following those heady moments, however, the bell received little attention. While Carlisle continues to pay the $100,000 a year for its upkeep, the bell has faded from public memory just four years after its widely publicized dedication. A planned 1,000-foot tower, restaurant, and shops never materialized. For the few tourists and interested locals, gaining admittance to the bell tower is a chore: the door reads “By Appointment Only” and the expected background information on the massive monument is nowhere to be found.
In recent days, however, various public relations firms and officials have proposed ideas for turning around the sagging interest in the bell. A firefighter’s memorial has been suggested for the lot on which the bell stands. New plans for dining and commercial spaces are being investigated. Another initiative hopes to bring teens to the site for non-violence and tolerance workshops, and still another idea is to use the bell to mark the signing of peace treaties worldwide.
Until these projects come to light, though, there is a quiet and reflective spot in Newport that happens to contain a bell, a spot just right for contemplating the world at large, or your own community, a spot for fostering peace beginning with each individual.
Kendra Leonard is an arts historian based in the Cincinnati area.
