Dear North Fairhavenites
I feel like a victim of theft after reading an article in the 1/21/21 issue of the Standard-Times regarding our Paul Revere bell. Is it just me or do you feel the same?
From the time that the bell was removed from the Oxford School, I had the feeling that we in North Fairhaven would not be getting it back. And, sure enough! The article leaves no question that we are being robbed!
Why should our Paul Revere bell be located in the center of Fairhaven? Isn’t it enough that they have all the beautiful buildings donated by Henry Huttleston Rogers? Can’t we have the one thing that was ours for so many years — the Oxford School bell?
If you’re an old North Fairhavenite like me, you remember it ringing at the start of school. You remember counting the number of rings that signaled the location of a fire in town. You looked up to the top of Oxford School and there was your bell.
Now the Bell Committee wants to located it in the center of Fairhaven. Why? It means nothing to them. We have a gazebo sitting in the middle of Benoit Square. Place it there and make it damage and theft-proof.
If placing it in the center of town is just one more thing to entertain tourists, let them travel a mile or so up Main or Adams Street and they can view it at Benoit Square.
Mr. Baumgartner, of the Bell Committee, says it’s wonderful to have so many people involved in the work and effort to place the bell next to the town hall keeping history alive. Placing it back in North Fairhaven would really be keeping history alive. And, by the way, who appointed the members of the Bell Committee? I was never contacted. Were you?
I hope that I’m not the only one who feels robbed. If you feel like I do, let your voice be heard. Get on Facebook or whatever everyone does nowadays and complain. Or, write a letter.
Dorothy Lemos, Fairhaven
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Click here to download the entire 2/11/21 issue: 02-11-21 JacksonsSign
