ORANGE : Long-Silent Bell Will Herald Holidays

More than a century ago, a bell summoned Quakers to worship at the first church in Orange, while less than a mile away, another bell called the students of El Modena Elementary School to class.

The bells of El Modena, a part of the community’s history since the late 1880s, are now mostly silent, but efforts are under way to use the church bell again during the upcoming holidays.

“We are going to start using it during Christmas season,” said Pastor Larry Whittlesey.

On a recent afternoon Whittlesey tested the church bell, which now runs electrically, but it failed to ring. He hopes the bell will be repaired in time for Christmas services.

The bell originated in the early 1880s, when three brothers from a Midwestern Quaker family settled in “Modena,” an independent community where pioneers tended grape vineyards east of the city of Orange. The Quaker settlement grew, and in 1887, a small, wooden church was constructed.

A wealthy landowner, David Hewes, donated a bell to hang in the steeple of the Religious Society of Friends, or Quakers, church on Chapman Avenue, according to church records. Shipped around Cape Horn and then carted by horse and wagon from Newport Harbor, the bell was finally hoisted to the belfry.

But the light frame building was no match for fierce Santa Ana winds, and within a month of construction strong gusts toppled the church and sent the bell crashing through the ceiling.

Undaunted, the community rebuilt the church, and the bell was replaced in the steeple. The bell remained there until 1967, when services were moved to the Hillview Friends Church just blocks away. The bell moved with the church and now hangs 20 feet above ground in front of the church on Rancho Santiago Boulevard.

The original church still stands on Chapman Avenue and now serves as a dining hall for Moreno’s Mexican Restaurant. A sign identifies the white building as “Casa de Mariachi.”

The Orange Quaker community dwindled in the early 1980s and in recent years the bell’s toll has rarely been heard, Whittlesey said. But the bell does have a future.

Another historic bell overlooks the campus courtyard of El Modena High School. The clapper has been removed to prevent pranksters from stealing it, but it is replaced for special occasions, and the bell still rings out to mark school sporting victories.

In 1888, the bell, made in Seneca Falls, N.Y., hung in the bell tower of El Modena Elementary, a four-room schoolhouse. Later it came to El Modena High and Ron Gardon, assistant principal of activities, remembers when the “Vanguard Victory Bell” was wheeled out to the football field for home games and clanged after each touchdown. About 15 years ago, however, the bell was put in storage and forgotten. Then in 1988, it was rediscovered and hung on campus as a gift from the senior class.

The bell represents “the spirit of El Modena,” Gardon said.