AUBURN — A New Auburn walking tour Tuesday, June 30, will review possible locations for a community memorial featuring the bells removed from the St. Louis Parish.

The tour steps off at Rolly’s Diner at 6 p.m. and continues around the area, up to the former church building and then back down Dunn Street to Raymond Park and Rolly’s Diner.

It’s being led by Auburn Economic Development Specialist Alan S. Manoian and City Councilor Leroy Walker.

The tour will “… touch upon preliminary concepts and possible locations for the recently preserved 1915 Bells of St. Louis Church,” Manoian said in an email. It will also focus on historic bakeries, shops, businesses and family homes in New Auburn.

Community members and New Auburn businesses raised the $12,000 to buy the four historic Paccard Foundry bells from the Catholic Diocese of Maine. They were the tower bells of New Auburn’s St. Louis Parish, which was decommissioned in 2012.

The bells have been stored at Cote Crane’s Auburn warehouse since they were removed from New Auburn’s St. Louis church.

The four bells were cast in 1915 at a world-famous foundry in Annecy, France, the Paccard Bell Foundry. Each is marked with Latin inscriptions, detailing for whom they were cast and the date and location of the church.

Two were built to commemorate the lives of Auburn businessman and alderman Pierre Provost and his family. A third commemorated longtime New Auburn baker Phillipe DuPont and the fourth a Parish priest, the Rev. Henri Gory.

staylor@sunjournal.com

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