The story about the large bell that sits in front of the Spruill Center for the Arts today begins with a trip from Roswell. The bell was purchased near Roswell and brought to Dunwoody by horse and buggy. Who the bell was purchased from is not included in the story.
The earliest records of a Dunwoody School are from the late 1800s. The school was a one room wooden building. Zachariah Eidson donated land at the present site of the Dunwoody Library and Spruill Center for the Arts for the purpose of a school.
Dunwoody school in the 1940s
Later, the one-room school was replaced with a larger painted wooden school, then a brick building. Eventually, a modern building was built adjacent to the old school. The older part burned in the 1960’s, an event that some Dunwoody residents still remember well.
The bell at Dunwoody School was not only rung to announce the beginning and end of the school day, it was also rung to warn the people of Dunwoody of a fire or other emergency.
During World War II, the bell rang to celebrate when one of the grades at the Dunwoody School had one hundred percent participation for their thrift stamp books.
This photo of teacher Nettie Austin and her first grade students, shows them preparing to ring the school bell. The photo appears in the history book Ethel Spruill and Elizabeth Davis wrote, “The Story of Dunwoody.”
The bell today is held in a brick display structure and a white wooden historic site sign was placed nearby in 2011.
Jane Autry, a descendent of the pioneer Carpenter family, shared her memories of the bell from the 1940’s. She remembered that the bell was in the attic of the school, with a rope that hung down in the hallway. When every student in a grade filled out their World War II stamp book, the class would gather in the hallway for a celebration which included ringing the bell. It would sometimes take two or three students to pull the rope and ring the heavy bell if it was a younger grade. Principal Elizabeth Davis believed the ceremony of ringing the bell encouraged the children to fill their stamp books.
Mrs. Autry returned to Dunwoody Elementary from 1960 until 1973, when she worked as school secretary. During this time, the new home for the bell was built.
Other sources cited include: “The Story of Dunwoody: 1821-2001” by Elizabeth L. Davis, Ethel W. Spruill, Joyce Amacher, and Lynne Byrd.