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A worker waits for a crane to lower rigging to hook onto the 1820 Paul Revere and Son bell Wednesday at Christ Episcopal Church on Gardiner Common in Gardiner. The church was built around the bell, so this was the first time it had been on the ground in over two centuries.
Workers watch as a crane raises the 1820 Paul Revere and Son bell out of the tower Wednesday at Christ Episcopal Church on Gardiner Common.
A crane lowers the 1820 Paul Revere and Son bell down to Dresden Avenue on Wednesday at Christ Episcopal Church on Gardiner Common in Gardiner. The church was built around the bell, so this was the first time it had been on the ground in over two centuries.
Workers build a support the 1820 Paul Revere and Son bell after it was lowered onto Dresden Avenue on Wednesday from Christ Episcopal Church’s bell tower on Gardiner Common in Gardiner.
The manufacturer’s name is displayed Wednesday on the bell that was pulled out of the Christ Episcopal Church on Gardiner Common. The Rev. Kerry Mansir, Rector of Christ Episcopal Church, Christ Episcopal Church was built on Gardiner Common in 1820 when the Paul Revere and Son bell was installed. The bell tower renovations started in April and the plan “We knew there was deterioration in the walls of the tower and the granite was starting to shift,” said Mansir. She said that the original plan was to put a support around the tower and repair it in place. But upon further inspection they found that the bell tower walls were so deteriorated that they couldn’t safely do that. So instead the spire and bell were removed so that there would be less weight on the walls while doing the repairs. “It was supposed to be a million dollar project. We don’t have final numbers on the additional work because the design of the spire and what the materials will cost. They’re estimating it will be an additional $300,000 to $500,000. We had the million, we have a grant from the federal government. We have a HUD grant for historic preservation and we had fundraised the rest. So now we’re figuring out how to fundraise the additional.”
The bell made by Revere & Son in 1820 is shown in April 2023 at Christ Episcopal Church in Gardiner. The steeple and the bell were removed during renovation work on the tower in summer 2025.
This October 2020 file photo shows the exterior view of Christ Church Episcopal in Gardiner. The steeple and bell were removed in the summer of 2025 as part of renovation work on the tower.

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Joe Phelan is an award winning journalist who makes photos and videos around the capital area for the the Kennebec Journal, Morning Sentinel and the other Masthead Maine publications. Joe’s first journalism...