After Sitting in a California Garage, Paul Revere’s Bell is Now Home in Massachusetts

Editor's note: This article was written by a Townsquare Media Northern New England contributor and may contain the individual's views, opinions, or personal experiences.

This is such a crazy, cool story.  After nearly 200 years, MSN says the bronze bell that was cast in 1834 in Paul Revere's foundry in Canton, Massachusetts, is finally home.

The Revere & Son Charitable Trust, an arm of the Paul Revere Heritage site in Canton, Massachusetts, raised $5,000 to bring the bell home.  I've attached the short video of this piece of history's return.

According to the Paul Revere Heritage Site, Paul Revere's son, Joseph Warren Revere, made the bell in 1804 after taking over his father's foundry.

Now, after nearly 200 years, the bell took the 3,000 mile journey from a garage in the Southern California town of Chino Hills to Canton, Massachusetts.

Why has it been sitting in a garage for decades?  According to MSN, the bell first spent over 175 years in two different suburban Cleveland churches.

It was in 1984 when a real estate agent brokered the sale of its latest church and didn't want the bell. So, the broker took it and eventually moved it to Southern California, where the bell sat for a decade in her garage.

Apparently, the family would go out to their garage and ring the bell every 4th of July, according to MSN.  That's actually really cool!

I mean, can you imagine lugging a 1,000-pound historic bell across the country?  I applaud the gumption, but wow, how crazy for such a big part of New England history, and the country for that matter.  But now it's home, and the Heritage and historians alike couldn't be more thrilled to ring it.

Here's the video of its arrival and unloading at the Paul Revere Heritage Site.