Bell in Kilbourne Middle School Tower

This photograph shows the bell that James Kilbourne and the first settlers of Worthington brought with them when establishing Worthington in 1803. The bell, which has been located in the cupola at Kilbourne Middle School more than eighty years, has been located in school buildings on the Village Green since Worthington’s early years. An advance party, arriving in Worthington in the spring of 1803, constructed a large log cabin to be used both as a school house and as the church building for the Protestant Episcopal Church. This cabin was sited on two town lots on the northeast side of the public square which were reserved by the Scioto Company in their minutes book “for the use and benefit of a Publick school.”

By 1808, the Worthington Academy, a two-story red brick building was erected on the northeast side of the Village Green, and included a cupola where the bell was placed. The building stood until 1875, serving as the home to the Worthington College and the Ohio Reformed Medical College until mid-century and was then used for community events. At that time a new school building was constructed, which provided a home for the bell from 1875 until it was razed in 1937.

By 1938, the student population had grown substantially in Worthington, and the school board determined it was necessary to replace the 1875 building on the original school lot. A colonial style building was constructed and opened in 1938. The building housed elementary and junior high school students. It had an auditorium on the west end and a gymnasium on the west. The central entry facing Granville Road was capped by a bell tower containing the original bell James Kilbourne had purchased for the 1808 Worthington Academy building.

John Snouffer, a lifelong Worthington resident with deep roots in the area, a Board Member of the Worthington Historical Society and President Emeritus and Historian of the (Thomas) Worthington Alumni Club, took this photograph.