Mystery Bell Found in Tunnels at CV High School—Can You Identify It?

It seems perfectly plausible that a place called “The Tunnels” would conceal a mystery or two, and at Chartiers Valley High School, they do.

“The Tunnels,” as they are known, refer to the basement area of the middle/high school complex, and earlier this week a very old bell was found there.

No one seems to know where it came from, or for how long it’s been in the basement. The bell is not large and has few markings. A stand was found with it.

“We’ve been cleaning out this area, and we found some history along the way,” said the district’s public relations director, Kara Droney. “We don’t know much about it.”

The Tunnels are mainly used for storage, but also house equipment and the workshop for the district’s maintenance department.

School employees have been cleaning out old desks and other equipment from The Tunnels and plan to hold a public auction later this summer to sell some pieces. Chartiers Valley Patch will publish information about the auction at a later date.

The bell is not for sale, but district officials want to solve the mystery, and they are hoping someone in town remembers the bell. During the June 25 school board meeting, Superintendent Brian White and board members speculated that the bell might have been at one of the district’s former elementary schools.

Chuck Degrosky of Bridgeville Historical Society said the find is baffling. He remembers a bell at the former Washington Elementary School on Washington Avenue, but doesn’t think it’s the same one. Washington Elementary School burned down in the 1950s.

“The bell hung at the top of the building, and there was a long rope that came down to ring it. It rang when school started. I think it rang at lunchtime. Sometimes the kids would just ring it whenever. I did it myself,” he said, laughing.

Degrosky said he thought the bell at Washington Elementary was likely much larger than the one found in The Tunnels, but he thought it was possible that the bell could have come from one of the other schools.

He planned to look for references to it in the historical society’s archives.

The middle/high school complex was built in 1970, and Droney said The Tunnels apparently became a place to store relics from the district’s former schools. Placards for each of the former elementary schools also were found, and the district plans to display them in one of the current buildings.

Chartiers Valley School District is asking that anyone who remembers the bell, or who has evidence of where the bell came from, contact the school district.