Monday - visit St. Johns Anglican, Lunenburg, which burned on Halloween 2001. Peter Allen, chimer has taken over the restoration of the chimes and chimestand. In a most amazing display, he has created mechanical drawings of the chimestand from pictures and ashes. The cracked tenor and nine others are sitting at a local foundry, waiting to go to Meeks and Watson for tenor recasting and others to be tuned. The church has been covered and enclosed by canvas, stretched in various widths up, over and down shaped metal pipes. Never seen anything like it. P.Allen@ns.sympatico.ca Copy of original dedication program is at NYS Museum, Albany, NY, box 12-1 F5, dedicated by F P Lotz.
Could you imagine bringing all of this back to life??? The church has been rebuilt. Peter made a magnificent new chimestan (duplicating the one at Truro). Meeks Watson recast the three low bells (which were cracked from the heat) and tuned the whole set. Later on, one more bell gradually lost its timbre and was recast and tuned. All of this is is a real tribute to Peter and the Canadian historic ethic.