Bell Tolls Again At Long Silent Forest Hills Church

FOREST HILLS, QUEENS – The bells at a Forest Hills church are chiming after a decade of silence.

Recent renovation work on the bell tower at the Lady Queen of Martyrs church at 110-6 Queens Blvd. has let the tolling begin again on Aug. 27, according to the Queens Chronicle.

Though the music congregants hear isn't created by actual bells – it's in fact a keyboard instrument called a carillon which emanates through the tower – it's enough to make them happy.

“It was such a beautiful thing to hear that sound running through the air,” church music director David Close was quoted as saying. “We’ve waited a long time to hear them again.”

The repairs came as Our Lady Queens of Martyrs is marking its 100th anniversary, according to the Queens Chronicle.

The carillon creates bell sounds at regular intervals throughout the day and to announce Sunday services.

Close said the sounds shouldn't draw any complaints from neighbors.

“They’re at just the right level,” he told the Queens Chronicle. “They don’t disappear in the din of Queens Boulevard, but I guess a good siren going by will obliterate it.”

Lead image by matteson.norma via Flickr.