High in the Old Post Office tower hangs one of the few sets of English change-ringing bells in the United States. They were a gift to Congress for the Bicentennial, and they ring out over Pennsylvania Avenue on national occasions.
A Bicentennial gift
In 1976 the Ditchley Foundation, a British organisation devoted to Anglo-American relations, presented a set of bells to the U.S. Congress to mark two hundred years of American independence. They were cast at the Whitechapel Bell Foundry in London, one of the oldest bell foundries in the world, and modelled on the bells of Westminster Abbey. Finding a home for them took several years. When the restored Old Post Office reopened in 1983, the bells were hung in its tower.
The Congress Bells
- Number
- 10 bells
- Cast by
- Whitechapel Bell Foundry, London
- Weight
- From about 581 to 2,953 pounds each
- Gift of
- The Ditchley Foundation, for the 1976 Bicentennial
- Installed
- 1983
- Rung by
- Volunteers of the Washington Ringing Society
What change ringing is
Change ringing is an English tradition that goes back to the seventeenth century. Each bell is mounted on a wheel and swung through a full circle by a ringer pulling a rope. Instead of playing tunes, the ringers ring the bells in mathematically ordered sequences called "changes", swapping the order of adjacent bells from one round to the next. A long performance called a peal can last around three hours without a single repeated sequence. It demands concentration and teamwork more than strength.
When they ring
The Washington Ringing Society, a volunteer group, rings the bells for the opening and closing of sessions of Congress, on federal holidays, on days of national significance and for state occasions. The National Park Service notes that they can be heard three or four blocks away, and the ringers have long practised on Thursday evenings.
Seeing the bells
For four decades, visitors on the way up to the observation level passed the ringing chamber and the bell chamber, where the bells and their wheels are visible. The tower closed to the public on October 1, 2025, and reopened in July 2026 under the hotel's management; press reports from the reopening describe visitors once again passing the bells on the way up.
Method, not chance
Visitors sometimes assume the ringers improvise. They do not: every change follows a written method, and a good band can ring thousands of rows without a single repeat. It is the opposite of a roulette wheel, where nothing is planned, and old ringers like to say that the only gamble in a peal is whether the band will last three hours without a slip.
A Washington tradition
The Congress Bells are now as much a part of the Old Post Office as its clock. They rang through the Pavilion years, through the construction of the hotel and through the changes of 2022 and 2026. For the building's full story see the overview and the redevelopment timeline.