Bells at Trinity Episcopal Peal Today for Anniversary by Kate DeForest, Times Staff Writer First published: Wednesday, July 28, 2004 The bells at Watertown's Trinity Episcopal Church will peal all day long from its recently restored bell tower to celebrate its 105th anniversary today. Or at least for about seven hours, to be more precise. "Not everyone can play them because it requires not only musical knowledge, but also some brute force," Trinity's organist and choirmaster Jason D. Comet said. He organized the event, which will take three to four "chimers," or bell-ringers, to pull off. The chimers will play the church's nine 105-year-old cast bronze bells from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. with periodic rests of 10 to 15 minutes. "We wanted to play the bells for the church's 100th anniversary, but the steeple wasn't structurally sound enough for us to do so," Mr. Comet said. Since the early 1990s, the bell tower had fallen into such a state of disrepair that the bells could not be rung without chunks of stone and building materials falling off the steeple because of the bells' vibrations, Mr. Comet said. At one point in the late 1990s, the tower was close to being razed. In 2000, the tower was repaired, and the church was once again able to ring the historic bells, which it does on a regular basis to call parishioners to the 10 a.m. Eucharist and at various times during the week, on the hour. The bells, cast by the Meneely Bell Foundry of Troy in 1899, were shipped to the church on July 28 of that year, a present of Roswell P. Flower, who also funded the construction of the church. The bells range in size from 300 pounds to 2,100 pounds, and the largest one is the size of a small Volkswagen, Mr. Comet said. Played by a plow-handle clavier, or keyboard, three stories below the bells, they are rung completely by hand. Mr. Comet said Trinity is the only church in Watertown that plays real bells, instead of relying on an electronic system that plays recordings of bells. The nine bells form an F-major scale, with an added E-flat, and allow the chimers to play a variety of songs. Mr. Flower, who was born in Theresa, served as New York governor from 1892 to 1895. He also served two terms in Congress, from 1881 to 1883 and from 1889 to 1891.