The Old Town Hall Bell Tower—The Keeper Of Some Of Summerville’s Most Controversial And Precious Stories

Summerville was a growing town in 1892. With the ensuing growth, time, if not necessity, called for a new town hall to be built. A corner plot was chosen where the streets of West Richardson and S. Main Street intersected. The cost to build it was set at $6,250.

The planned four story building would wisely face the town's main square, an idyllic vantage point. The first floor would house a high-end grocery store called the "Tea Pot". The second floor would contain the municipal offices. On the third floor, a multi-purpose room/auditorium space would be available for special town events such as dances, plays, parties and operas. The fourth story would shelter the structures massive bell, but as history would have it, it would shelter more than just the bell. It became the keeper for some of Summerville’s most controversial and precious stories.

Children were forbidden to go up into the town hall belfry for obvious safety reasons, not to leave unmentioned the easy temptation presented to an impetuous youth to playfully ring the bell. Although, stories tell of savvy youngsters secretly trudging their way up through the humid darkness of the steep, creaky belfry stairs, navigating a hatchway, and then a catwalk to get to the top. Being the tallest building on Hutchinson Square, the view the belfry offered was often the prize. Imagine the thrill one would experience at seeing from above President Roosevelt and his entourage ride by on Main Street as they made their way to the Pine Forest Inn.

Now, visualize the chaos a person could unleash on the town with an unauthorized ringing of the bell. There was a $200 fine for anyone foolish enough to do it. A popular story tells of a physician named Louis Miles ignoring the law and ringing the bell to announce the birth of his daughter to a confused crowd that gathered below. He happily paid the fine not once, but twice for the same reason.

View of Summerville from the old town hall bell tower in its early years

During World War II, civilians were stationed in the Town Hall bell tower as lookouts. Their task was to watch the skies for enemy aircraft and when spotted, sound the alarm. Silhouettes of enemy aircraft were pinned on the interior walls to assist the lookouts in making proper identifications. One night, the town had a scare when out of the darkened skies a plane buzzed the tower. Combined with several other suspicious incidents that night, officials were convinced the town was under attack, but fortunately, it was all a false alarm. It turned out an impulsive local boy on a training flight just couldn't resist the urge to be playful. Maybe, he heard one of the town's unattached pretty girls was on duty that night.

Young ladies, who were on duty in the bell tower, would use the opportunity to do some boy spotting. Young military men were all over the town during the war. The young ladies would use their vantage point in the high bell tower to keep an eye out for a potential date. When a group of interesting prospects were spotted, the young lady would toss a note wrapped around a stone with the date, time, and place of the next American Legion party along with her name to the boy of her choosing with hopes of meeting at the party.

There is an interesting story told by one of those young ladies who was doing "spotter duty" on the date of April 4, 1945. It is an Area 51 type story, except the flying object was identified in this case, but no formal proof has been found to verify the flying object's existence. For one, the wreckage of the B-24 Liberator bomber was buried by the military in the Summerville field where it crashed. Second, the local paper carried no report of the crash. And third, based on their records, the Air Force Historical Studies Office claims no such crash occurred on that date in Summerville and no flight of a B-24 over Summerville existed on that date, as the story is told. Needless to say, everything that has to do with the military during war time becomes classified information. Still, the young lady on duty that fateful afternoon, who I shall leave unnamed, a school full of young children, and the school's faculty would say otherwise, and not to leave unmentioned as additional possible potential witnesses, the ten flyboys who were seen parachuting from the bomber moments before it crashed. It was seen coming in from the east. So, if the story is true, somewhere buried in a Summerville field west of the town hall is the wreckage of a B-24 bomber, but likely hidden below property that has been developed upon by now. The story is called The Phantom Flight over Summerville by Bruce Orr.

School commencements were held in the Old Town Hall on Hutchinson Square. At such an event one evening, in the middle of the ceremony, an announcement was made for the attendees to leave the building in an orderly and quiet manner. Later, it was reported some of the town's officials in attendance had felt an ominous swaying. The upper floors were declared unsafe for public gatherings, in part, due to the weight of the bell in the fourth floor bell tower. This event led to the town hall and its bell tower to be condemned. Thus, the keeper's book of stories closed with the words, The End.

I am sure there are more stories to be remembered and told. If you have a story or know of one, please leave its telling in the article's comments.

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