When the Larsmont Community Club held its annual meeting on May 5, community leaders realized the large cast bell, proudly perched atop the Memorial Garden at the Larsmont Little Red Schoolhouse, was missing. Weighing almost two hundred pounds, taking the bell from its place of honor required real effort. The memorial garden was added around 2020 to honor those who built and preserved the Larsmont community.
President of the Community Club, Bill Tranah, reported the loss to the Lake County Sheriff’s office on Monday, May 11. “Right now, our biggest concern is getting the bell back,” Tranah said. “No questions asked.”
It’s not clear when the bell was actually removed from the Memorial garden, but one of the board members saw it recently in a ditch along the road. He left a voicemail about it for Tranah, who was out of town at the time. Later, when he’d returned home, Tranah found no trace of the bell in the ditch and assumed someone else from the club had secured it. At the annual meeting, it was realized that both Tranah and his caller assumed the other had retrieved the bell, although neither had. The meeting included a search of the surrounding grounds, but no trace of the bell was found.
The Little Red Schoolhouse was built in 1914 to serve the growing number of children in the railroad community. After about 20 years, students in the area were consolidated in Two Harbors. It served as a formal school for only about 20 years before the district consolidated with Two Harbors. Rather than being demolished, the building was repurposed, ultimately becoming the anchor of the Larsmont community. It has served as a fire hall for the Larsmont Volunteer Fire Department, a church, and, eventually, the community center it is today.
The Larsmont Little Red Schoolhouse is officially listed on the National Register of Historic Places, added in 1992. Despite being painted red later in its life, it was originally white with dark trim; the structure remains largely unmodified and sits on its original 1914 site. Because of its historic status, the Community Club was denied permission to add a bell tower for the donated bell. So, they constructed a stand alongside the memorial garden to display the bell.
As a volunteer for Grandma’s Marathon, a footrace that passes through Larsmont on its way from Two Harbors to Duluth, Tranah recalls enjoying watching local kids ring the bell to welcome and inspire the running athletes as they passed by.
The community urges anyone with information about the bell’s whereabouts to contact the Lake County Sheriff at 218-834-8385 or reach out to the Larsmont Community Club at www.larsmont.org. Your help is appreciated in returning the bell to its rightful place.
