Ona May Lowe Carillon - San Diego, CA
Posted by: Metro2
N 32° 43.889 W 117° 09.137
11S E 485731 N 3621529
This carillon is in the California Tower in San Diego's Balboa Park.
Waymark Code: WM9J67
Location: California, United States
Date Posted: 08/25/2010
Views: 23
Although this carillon is in the 198-foot tall California Tower which was built for the 1915-1916 Pan-American Expo, it was not placed here until 1946.
Surprisingly, unlike the other facilities in San Diego's Balboa Park, there is not an abundance of information available about the Carillon. One paragraph of a long history of the park's building's has this to say: (
visit link)
"Museum activities were relatively quiet between 1946 and 1965. Dr. Frank Lowe paid for the installation on Christmas Day, December 25, 1946, of a 30-chime carillon in the California Tower in honor of his mother, Ona May Lowe, for the carillon's reconditioning in 1949, and for its replacement, on April 6, 1967, with a 100-chime carillon. The carillon can be played by plastic rolls, as in a player piano, and by a carilloneur at a keyboard."
The plaque at the site reads:
"THE
ONA MAY LOWE
CARILLON
GIVEN
IN HER HONOR
BY HER SON
FRANK M. LOWE, JR.
CHRISTMAS 1946
AND
COMMEMORATING THE PEACE
SEPTEMBER 2, 1945
REPLACED IN HER MEMORY
CHRISTMAS 1966
WITH A
100-BELL SYMPHONIC CARILLON
DEDICATED APRIL 30, 1967"