As you travel the outer road around Belle Isle State Park near the Detroit River boat channel between Detroit, Michigan and Windsor, Ontario, Canada, you can’t miss the tall gray tower north of the road.
When I saw the Nancy Brown Peace Carillon this week, gorgeous early summer blooms of yarrow and orange butterfly milkweed in Oudolf Garden Detroit created a beautiful carpet of color in front of the tower.
Dedicated to peace, the 85-foot tall neo-Gothic tower has a rich history.
A popular Detroit News columnist who wrote under the name Nancy Brown held Sunrise Services on Belle Isle starting in 1934, drawing 30,000 people in the first year.
The next year, an estimated 50,000 people attended the Sunrise Service.
Eventually, her readers suggested a tower be built to commemorate the services. At a cost of $59,000, money was raised entirely from donations and fundraisers.
During the Depression.
No city money was used.
At the Seventh Annual Sunrise Service on June 16, 1940, the Nancy Brown Peace Carillon was dedicated in front of a crowd of 50,000 people.
The first concert was held at the tower on July 4, 1940.
Sadly, over time, the tower faced neglect.
The carillon stopped playing music in 1970 due to damage from pigeons. Stained glass windows were vandalized.
The city of Detroit didn’t have the money to maintain the tower.
In recent years, new chimes replaced the original music system. You can hear the chimes play on the half hour.
With the new Oudolf Garden Detroit, the grounds around the carillon that were overrun with overgrown plantings and weeds look pristine again.
If you look carefully in the background of the photo, you’ll see apartment buildings of Windsor, Ontario, Canada on the far shoreline of the Detroit River behind the carillon.
