Workers unearth historic bell in Riverside yard

[coredumped]

http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2010-08-18/story/workers-unearth-historic-bell-riverside-yard

When Tony Padilla came home from work Wednesday  afternoon, he expected a pile of dirt in his backyard in the 3000 block of Riverside Avenue.


After all, some sewer work was being done there.


He didn’t expect what the plumbing crew unearthed 3.5 feet down, under a long-buried 1903-vintage pond.


“Do we have an archaeological site here? So who clunked it first with the backhoe?” Padilla exclaimed, eyeing a huge, cast-iron bell as he walked down his back steps. “That’s wild!”


No one knows how the bell got there, or when, not even longtime Jacksonville historian and author Wayne Wood. But he hopes publicity spurs someone’s memory of its origins.


“I don’t know if we have enough information,” said Wood, a Riverside resident himself. “The story is, what the heck is it? It is like finding buried treasure in your backyard.”


The Padillas say their house dates back to about 1903 when a local doctor, Marshall Taylor, built it. Back then, that area was rural, only a few homes on lots subdivided out of the plantations that lined the St. Johns River there in the 1800s, Wood said.


“In 1903 that was pretty far out in the country,” he said. “It was mostly woods. There were no other houses between there and the river that I can think of.”


At some point, Taylor’s home was used by a church for Sunday school classes and housed the church secretary. The brick pond behind the home was filled in somewhere along the line. When the Padillas hired Terry Vereen  Plumbing to dig up the yard to replace sewer pipes, chunks of the old pond surfaced. But backhoe operator John Cooper hit something else Wednesday morning as fellow crew members John McBane, Tim Eber and Mile Small watched.


They have found old trucks, engine blocks and other stuff in people’s yards but never this.


“At first we thought it was a metal barrel, but as they dug it out it flipped,” Small said. “We didn’t expect to find a complete bell or anything like that. We have dug up a lot of things, but that’s the first bell.”


It sure surprised Sheri Padilla.


“I think it’s a great find and I would like to find out more about it,” she said. “The only thing we talked about was a possible church bell because there was a church here. But it seems awfully big to me.”


Cast-iron, about 3 feet high, it is lightly crusted with rust and smaller than the famous Liberty Bell. Undecorated from flaring lip to squared-off crown, its metal yoke is attached with a single bolt, the number “30” cast into it.

One of the two Y-shaped frames that supported it also was found, as was a metal ring that went around the yoke, probably where a rope to ring it was attached. Inside, the pin that the clapper hung from is intact, but empty, maybe still buried in the backyard.


Sheri Padilla did call someone who taught at the old Sunday school, but they don’t remember a bell.


“It could have been there and Taylor didn’t even know it was there when he built the pond,” Wood suggested. “Or he could have thrown it in there for good luck.”


“Looking at the depth, it could have been long prior to that,” said Tony Padilla. “Who knows?”


Wood hopes to meet with the Padillas and take a closer look at the bell, which will be moved to a more protected location.

[aubureck]

that is absolutely the coolest thing I think I have heard in a while.  I love reading about people finding things like that.  I used to watch "If Walls Could Talk" this would fit perfectly on that show.

[blizz01]

From the TU - I figured some of the history buffs on this site could zero in pretty quick....Seems to me that if there was previously a church on the site that there really isn't too much room for mystery.

By Dan Scanlan

When Tony Padilla came home from work Wednesday  afternoon, he expected a pile of dirt in his backyard in the 3000 block of Riverside Avenue.

After all, some sewer work was being done there.
He didn’t expect what the plumbing crew unearthed 3.5 feet down, under a long-buried 1903-vintage pond.
“Do we have an archaeological site here? So who clunked it first with the backhoe?” Padilla exclaimed, eyeing a huge, cast-iron bell as he walked down his back steps. “That’s wild!”
No one knows how the bell got there, or when, not even longtime Jacksonville historian and author Wayne Wood. But he hopes publicity spurs someone’s memory of its origins.
“I don’t know if we have enough information,” said Wood, a Riverside resident himself. “The story is, what the heck is it? It is like finding buried treasure in your backyard.”
The Padillas say their house dates back to about 1903 when a local doctor, Marshall Taylor, built it. Back then, that area was rural, only a few homes on lots subdivided out of the plantations that lined the St. Johns River there in the 1800s, Wood said.
“In 1903 that was pretty far out in the country,” he said. “It was mostly woods. There were no other houses between there and the river that I can think of.”

At some point, Taylor’s home was used by a church for Sunday school classes and housed the church secretary. The brick pond behind the home was filled in somewhere along the line. When the Padillas hired Terry Vereen  Plumbing to dig up the yard to replace sewer pipes, chunks of the old pond surfaced. But backhoe operator John Cooper hit something else Wednesday morning as fellow crew members John McBane, Tim Eber and Mile Small watched.
They have found old trucks, engine blocks and other stuff in people’s yards but never this.
“At first we thought it was a metal barrel, but as they dug it out it flipped,” Small said. “We didn’t expect to find a complete bell or anything like that. We have dug up a lot of things, but that’s the first bell.”
It sure surprised Sheri Padilla.

“I think it’s a great find and I would like to find out more about it,” she said. “The only thing we talked about was a possible church bell because there was a church here. But it seems awfully big to me.”

Cast-iron, about 3 feet high, it is lightly crusted with rust and smaller than the famous Liberty Bell. Undecorated from flaring lip to squared-off crown, its metal yoke is attached with a single bolt, the number “30” cast into it.
One of the two Y-shaped frames that supported it also was found, as was a metal ring that went around the yoke, probably where a rope to ring it was attached. Inside, the pin that the clapper hung from is intact, but empty, maybe still buried in the backyard.

Sheri Padilla did call someone who taught at the old Sunday school, but they don’t remember a bell.
“It could have been there and Taylor didn’t even know it was there when he built the pond,” Wood suggested. “Or he could have thrown it in there for good luck.”

“Looking at the depth, it could have been long prior to that,” said Tony Padilla. “Who knows?”
Wood hopes to meet with the Padillas and take a closer look at the bell, which will be moved to a more protected location.

http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2010-08-18/story/workers-unearth-historic-bell-riverside-yard

[Steve]

We had two topics that were the exact same thing - I just merged them.

[deathstar]

This is SO awesome! It just caught my eye on the FTU website out of all the other stories. Maybe Yoke was the name of an area when Jax was called Cowford? I sure hope someone comes forth with information about it!

[BridgeTroll]

Very cool!

[uptowngirl]

I can't wait to hear more on this, how exciting!

[Captain Zissou]

I wonder how much that thing weighs.  3 feet tall is pretty big.

[BridgeTroll]

I am soooo glad they found my bell... I lost it a few years ago.  Please PM me to return it...

[videojon]

http://jacksonville.com/video/news/metro/2010-08-19/watch-buried-backyard-bell

This has a video and interview of the bell and its finders.

I couldn't figure out how to embed the code for the life of me.

[Coolyfett]

that is absolutely the coolest thing I think I have heard in a while.  I love reading about people finding things like that.  I used to watch "If Walls Could Talk" this would fit perfectly on that show.

Hell yea!! Thats cool, but Wood says that area used to be rural?? Riverside? Thats kinda funny. I wonder if its a French or Spanish bell....no telling...hopefully they find more of it. So now that it was discovered...who owns its?

[Dapperdan]

Find some historical or achaeological society that would be willing to restore it. UF does tons of arcahaeolagical digs. Hopefully it is restored, researched,  and placed in a  local museum.

[Old Jim]

The home was completed two years after the great fire. The bell could  be from one of the downtown churches that was destroyed. The T-U article said it was under the pond which would indicate it had been there since the time the home was built, but the video said it was beside the pond which means it could have been buried much later.

[coredumped]

Credit to videojon for the link

http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f9?&width=630&height=412&flashID=myExperience&bgcolor=%23FFFFFF&playerID=40190701001&publisherID=1155951816&isVid=true&dynamicStreaming=true&%40videoPlayer=589383847001&autoStart=

[videojon]

Any update on where this bell might have come from?