212 feet tall
41 feet x 7 inches square
19,848 square feet of floor space
Designed by Albert Kahn
Final cost = $243,664.61
Recent renovation = $1.8 million
Construction: reinforced concrete shell faced with limestone (1935–1936)
Dedicated Dec. 4, 1936
Named for U-M President Marion Leroy Burton (Presidency 1920–1925)
Charles Baird Carillon
Mounted atop the Burton Memorial Tower
Tied for fourth heaviest carillon in the world
55 bells cast in 1936 and 1975 (total weight 43 tons)
Largest bell: 12 tons; it strikes the hour
Smallest bell: 16.5 pounds
Bells hang 120 feet above campus
Bells are stationary—only the clappers move via mechanical linkage
Bells cast in Loughborough, England, by John Taylor and Co. Bellfoundry
Carillon donated by Charles M. Baird, U-M graduate, lawyer and U-M’s first athletic director
In 1935–1936 when Burton Tower was erected, pulleys were used to raise buckets of concrete, other construction materials and the carillon’s bells. The photo at left shows the hoisting of the bourdon bell, the heaviest bell in the carillon and the one that strikes the hours. (Photos courtesy of the Bentley Historical Library)
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