NORWOOD – A historic symbol of Norwood’s independent spirit is finally coming home, just in time for the Fourth of July.
The legendary 1847 Washington No. 7 Fire Bell is scheduled to return on June 30 after an extensive restoration process. Its grand unveiling will take place at 4:00 PM on July 4th on the Washington Street side of Town Hall, marking a triumphant chapter in a preservation project years in the making.
For local history buffs, the bell is more than just a piece of weathered metal, it may have been the catalyst for the founding of Norwood.
Cast in 1847 in “East Medway” (known today as the Town of Medway), the bell was originally hung in the Washington No. 7 firehouse in “South Dedham,” the area we now call Norwood.
According to local lore, the bell quickly became the center of a historical tug-of-war. Every year, Washington #7 station firefighters would ring the bell to celebrate Independence Day. However, buttoned-up officials in Dedham eventually issued a strict order to stop the celebratory noise.
The firefighters, refusing to have their patriotic spirit dampened, defied the order and rang it anyway.
“Legend has it that Dedham’s heavy-handed rules prohibiting such celebratory activities were the ultimate motivation for locals in South Dedham to break away and form their own independent town of Norwood,” said project organizer John Grove in an interview with Inside Norwood.
The Washington No. 7 firehouse, located where Saint Catherine’s Church Rectory stands today, eventually became obsolete after a new station was built in 1907. While the bell’s exact whereabouts during the subsequent decades remain a bit of a mystery, it found a permanent home in 1928 when it was hung in the tower of the newly constructed Norwood Town Hall.
Decades of exposure took their toll, but in 2023, Grove paired up with Norwood Firefighter Michael Chisolm,NFD’s volunteer historian, to rescue the relic. Utilizing Community Preservation Act (CPA) funding, the duo successfully removed the massive bell from the tower to send it off for professional refurbishment.
The restoration wasn’t just about aesthetics; it was about bringing the bell back into active community service.
“It was refurbished with a detachable clapper,” Grove explained. “This means it can now be safely rung during special community events, firefighter funerals, and, of course, Independence Day.”
The historic bell will be officially delivered back to Norwood soil on June 30, setting the stage for a historic holiday weekend. The bell will sit atop a concrete base directly across the street from its original home.
Residents are invited to gather on July 4th at 4:00 PM on the Washington Street side of Town Hall for a formal ribbon-cutting and dedication ceremony. Nearly 180 years after it was first cast, the Washington No. 7 Fire Bell will ring out once again, but this time nobody is telling Norwood to quiet down. -RD
