For decades, 18 metal chimes rang out of Louisiana State University’s Memorial Tower, filling campus with the ”Westminster Quarters” every quarter hour.
Renovations in the 1980s changed this, replacing the original chimes with the electronic speaker system that rings out over Tower Drive to this day. 
When the electronics went in and the chimes were removed from the spire, a mystery was sparked. The original bells were lost, said Tammy Millican, LSU’s executive director of facility and property oversight.
“When the tower was remodeled in the 1980s,” Millican said, “the chimes mysteriously vanished.”
Facility Services no longer has the records holding the specifics of the 1980s renovations and no one still working at the university knows anything about the tower’s renovation, Millican said. She said the exact date when the chimes went missing is unknown.
“I do know,” Millican said, “the original chimes notes were recorded to get the correct tone for the new system.”
The Gumbo Yearbook for the Class of 1986 has references to large construction projects across campus to beautify the area around the football stadium. There are no similar projects mentioned in the yearbooks for the rest of the ‘80s.
If the tower’s renovation occurred during the 1986 academic year, this would align with the timeline Facility Services is aware of. However, the mystery grows with information provided in yearbooks from the previous decade.
In the Class of 1976 edition of the Gumbo Yearbook, a question is posed to its readers.
“Did you know the chimes in the Bell Tower are not rung by a little elf?” The Gumbo asks. “Much to many students’ disappointment, they’ve discovered the chimes are taped.”
These lines in the yearbook imply the chimes system have been electronic for longer than the 1980s estimate. 
Due to lack of access to old records and people who worked on the renovations at the time, the exact date of the disappearance and where the original chimes went remain a mystery.
Millican said the original Deagan chimes weighed 550 pounds each, around 5 tons in total, and hung vertically at the top of the tower since it was finished in the 1920s. In total, the set would have cost $10,000 at the time, or $150,000 today, Millican said.
Since it was complete, Memorial Tower has had several renovations, including the ones in the 1980s and, the most recent starting in 2018, Millican said.
When renovating Memorial Tower, challenges arise. Paul Favaloro, project manager for the tower’s most recent renovation, said that the site is difficult to access and that working on an active college campus causes disturbances.
“Renovations are more surgical than new buildings starting from the ground up,” Favaloro said.
The project spanned two years and focused on the exterior of the tower, Favaloro said. He said that they also worked on the mechanical, electrical and plumbing updates the building needed, and that the clock face was refurbished.
Millican said the renovation gave the tower a “complete facelift” before the William A. Brookshire LSU Military Museum moved into the space at the base of the tower.
James Gregory Jr., director of the military museum, said since he started working in the building in June 2023, he hasn’t seen the person who maintains the clock’s electronics. 
Millican said a maintenance manager checks the electronic chime system monthly. While the speakers are at the top of the tower, a large computer is housed in a room in the building beneath the tower and runs the clock above.
Three locked doors, two stairwells and a ladder stand between the building beneath the tower and the speaker system – with the occasional graffiti and “stairs” sign, despite the fact that there is nothing else in the tower but stairs.
The maintenance manager is not the only one who climbs up to where the speakers are held. Gregory said he goes up the tower every two weeks to check a drain is working.
Gregory said he never needs a leg day because it’s “one hell of a hike” to the top.
He said some older alumni ask to go up the tower. The tower is not open to the public, but because of how frequently he gets the requests, Gregory said people might have been able to climb the tower in the past.
Memorial Tower holds a significant role in LSU’s campus and culture, standing tall over the university, with chimes that can be heard across campus. The tower is one of the oldest buildings on campus and the site of many traditions. 
Jason Jaunet of Metairie, Louisiana, who attended LSU in the late ‘90s, said the tower is a staple of LSU life. He said that he proposed to his first wife under the bell tower and that he’s always appreciated the building.
Jaunet is not the only one who thinks of Memorial Tower as a romantic site. The chimes play later than usual on Valentine’s Day for students who kiss in the tower’s forum at midnight, Millican said. 
However, Jaunet said that, to him, the missing chimes are not a big deal and that he has no emotional attachment to the ringing of the chimes.
“It’s the structure more than anything,” Jaunet said.