As part of our 150th in 2025 anniversary celebration, we are offering a commemorative booklet detailing our church’s history. Click here to explore our history.

HARP Bell Tower

One generation shall commend your works to another,
    and shall declare your mighty acts.
-Psalm 145:4-

Since 1887 — 137 years of our 150+ year history — our church bell has been part of our heritage, ringing from the original building, then the 1901 building, and now has entered its next chapter in our bell tower. The tower was designed to preserve this piece of HARP history as a testimony to the Lord's faithfulness. Each week, this part of our history calls us to worship.

Below is a brief timeline of the history of our bell:

3/25/1875: Huntersville ARP Church is organized and the first sanctuary is built.

11/28/1887: Bell order is placed with McShane Bell Company.

12/24/1887: Bell is shipped by rail to Huntersville. Signed for by Rev. W.W. Orr.

1901-1903: The second sanctuary is built, and the bell is moved into the included tower for ringing.

1958: Our current sanctuary is built, but the old sanctuary still holds the bell and is used for recreation.

8/14/2006: The old sanctuary is demolished, and the bell crashes to the ground as walls are knocked down. Sam McAulay loads the bell in his dump truck and takes it to his shop, where he, Robert W. Brown, and Robert M. Brown refurbish it and all its components, even crafting new mounting beams to match the original ones. The bell is then stored in the shop or the barn for almost 20 years. 

10/25/2024: Bell Tower Committee meets for the first time, and eventually hires Roger Birdsong as general contractor, without whom the project would have been cancelled.

2/18/2026: Bell is brought from McAulay homeplace to its new tower.

8/2/2026: New HARP Bell Tower is dedicated.