ALFRED, ME – It doesn’t ring every day – though for many years, it did so regularly – and an act of kindness that took place in the waning months of 1933 ensured that when there is a reason to toll the bell at York County Court House, it can happen.
Ninety-two years ago, on February 8, 1933, the unthinkable happened. The wooden center portion – the oldest, 1806 portion – of the stately York County Court House in Alfred burned.
At 10: 30 p.m. that night, as fire raged through the central structure of the courthouse, the bronze bell that had hung in the cupola for decades crashed down.
It was symbolic of the greater loss. Thankfully, most of York County’s records – including documents dating to the county’s 1636 formation, were not damaged, and are today in the process of being preserved for future generations. The brick wings, the first of which had been added in the mid-1850s, held, and once fully secured, the vaults did their job, according to the Sanford Tribune, published Feb. 9, 1933, the day following the fire.
“One of the dramatic episodes of the evening happened when Miss Lillian Gould (Deputy Clerk of Courts), Harry J. Kelley and Lester Garvin climbed through the Clerk of Courts office through a window and closed the heavy doors of the big fireproof vault, which contained priceless records,” the unnamed reporter wrote. A later story related that the trio also carried out the upcoming court docket that night.
Being Mainers, a practical lot, particularly in the depths of the Great Depression, the York County Commissioners of the day set about to repair the damage and rebuild the central portion of the courthouse. Originally estimated to cost $250,000 to rebuild, a revised estimate came in at $175,000 – and the final price, as noted in the Oct. 4, 1934, issue of the Biddeford Saco Journal, came in at about $155,000, offset by a $42,000 insurance payout. Commissioners agreed that as much as possible, construction materials should originate in Maine – and many did, from lumber to granite to slate, and area contractors did the work.
In the fall of 1933 as the cornerstone for the new central portion of the courthouse was laid, county commissioners gathered documents, coins and stamps, which were placed in a copper box within a granite cube which formed the base of the doric columns of the façade.
But until the new building could be constructed, court had to go on, and in the days following the fire, the county government moved quickly to assure that would happen. While a thought emerged that court sessions might be conducted at Saco City Hall until the center portion of the courthouse could be rebuilt, that didn’t happen. Alfred’s Board of Selectmen offered the use of their Town Hall, and pledged to construct two temporary jury rooms inside, and York County Commissioners accepted.
The cause of the fire, which originated in the basement, remained undetermined. A Feb. 9, 1933, issue of the Biddeford Saco Journal indicated officials believed there was either an unknown issue with the electrical wiring or spontaneous combustion. The courthouse was heated by coal at the time, and about 75 tons of coal was stored in the basement.
A boy named Dart, the story goes, discovered the fire while passing the courthouse about 9 p.m.
“Alfred firemen were assisted by citizen volunteers, but were unable to prevent the spread of the flames through the building to the second floor,” the BSJ reporter wrote. Aid was summoned from Sanford, Biddeford, and Kennebunk.
The cupola containing the bell fell at 10:30 p.m., the reporter wrote.
During the excavation of the debris, the old bronze bell that had daily called people to court was found melted into a mass of twisted metal, according to the April 23, 1933, Maine Sunday Telegram. “Many people saw the cupola fall and caught a glimpse of the bell as it plunged through the flames into the basement. When it was finally recovered it was scarcely recognizable mass of metal,” the Telegram reported.
The original bell bore the inscription “1887” and the maker: William Blake and Company of Boston, formerly known as the H.N. Hooper Company – which had succeeded a company owned by Paul Revere II, originally the Paul Revere Foundry.
There had been thoughts of recasting the bell, but according to a Sept. 6, 1933, issue of the Sanford Tribune & Advocate, that idea was dismissed, and there was no plan to replace it.
With the rebuilding of the courthouse, however, came an offer from neighbors nearby.
The Lyman Congregational Church, located on Howitt Road, had fallen on difficult times. Newspaper reports show the church had marked its 50th anniversary in 1851, but by 1933 the congregation had dwindled to a handful.
Church trustees wrote to the Board of York County Commissioners on Nov. 8, 1933:
“The trustees of Lyman Congregational Church and parish are united in the desire to present the bell on our church to the citizens of York County, to be placed in the new courthouse at Alfred. For fifty years it has rung out its message of Peace on Earth, Goodwill to Men over the countryside; may its message now be justice and righteousness to all.” - Signed by trustees Cyrus W. Murphy, Fred Whitten and E. Louise Merrill.
Three days after tendering their offer, on Nov. 11, 1933, trustees sold the one acre church property to the Congregational Christian Conference of Maine for $1, according to Lyman historian Steve Lord. The church cemetery continues to be maintained by the Lyman Cemetery Association.
York County Commissioners accepted the offer in their Dec. 5, 1933, reply:
“The Board of County Commissioners, on behalf of the citizens of York County, desire to express our appreciation of the gift of the bell formerly used in your church, which you desire to have installed in the new Court House now in process of construction. We will cause a suitable inscription to be placed upon this bell, so that future generations may be reminded of your public spirit and generosity.” - Signed by Commissioners Clarence Hussey, Arthur Hayes and Elmer Roberts.
The 1,000 pound Lyman Congregational Church bell – also a William Blake Company bell –was cast in 1883. It arrived in Alfred by motor vehicle in January 1934, as the courthouse was being rebuilt, according to a Jan. 7, 1934, Maine Sunday Telegram story. It had arrived in Lyman 50 years earlier, making its way from Boston to Alfred by train, loaded on an oxcart and taken to the church where Richard Stanley used a rope and tackle and the might of the oxen to hoist the bell into the steeple.
The church bell was hung inside the cupola of the courthouse, and while it no longer calls people to court, it was most recently rung on Sept 11, 2024, to mark the tremendous loss of life through acts of terrorism on that date to 23 years earlier.
It was rung during the nation’s Bicentennial in 1976. “We got so excited we rang it for 10 or 15 minutes,” said Betsey Roberts of herself and fellow York County Registry of Probate employees in a 2009 Journal Tribune story.
In the 1980s, it was rung at 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. weekdays by custodian George Dunn, former County Manager David Adjutant said in the 2009 piece. That ceased when Dunn retired, because no one volunteered for the task, he said.
Former York County Commissioner Joe Hanslip recalled that starting in the late 1990s, he and other county officials would open the courthouse door on Independence Day and guide families to the room where the bell’s rope is accessed, so they could experience the joy of ringing it.
Folks were invited to ring the bell on Jan. 20, 2009, when Barack Obama was inaugurated as the nation’s 44th President. “It’s a fun thing to do, and its free,” Richard Brown, York County Manager at the time, told a Journal Tribune reporter. “They can ring it for the outgoing President, the incoming President, or for history.”
Occasionally, it is rung by special request, as it was when longtime York County Sheriff’s Office Deputy William Emery expressed his desire to do so upon his retirement.
It recent years, it has been rung annually to mark the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. It is a solemn occasion, and rung at the precise times of the terrorist air attacks on the World Trade Centers, the Pentagon, and when an aircraft crashed into a farm field in rural Pennsylvania.
York County Court House was the location of the Court of Common Pleas for many years, and later, the home of York County Superior Court when the state created that court level in 1929.
According to Maine State Archives, county courts of common pleas went through changes, and later became municipal courts. The state created district courts in the 1960s and in York County, were established in three municipalities, with space at the county-owned courthouse in Alfred retained for Superior Court cases. Decades later, Maine began court consolidation, and in York County recreated the district and superior courts in a single, large facility in Biddeford in 2023.
The stately York County Court House continues to house the York County Probate Court, York County Registry of Probate, York County Registry of Deeds, and other county-related entities.
