The mysterious carillon at Memory Memorial

Naming gardens, sections or areas of cemeteries seems to be a mid-twentieth century phenomenon (note the vintage-looking sign) that I appreciate as there is usually some corresponding grotto, sculpture garden, flower bed, bench or other feature that is particularly scenic and invites contemplation.

The defunct, crumbling carillon struck me as spooky, but also unusual as carillons are more common in large lawn cemeteries, especially in California, or in military cemeteries. I’ve visited hundreds of cemeteries in the Pacific Northwest and have never seen a carillon anywhere else. So I decided to find out more.

Google searches revealed that carillons — real carillons, with real bells and real people to play them — are super upscale and unbelievably expensive. Over the decades, real carillons were replaced with electronic carillons, and then with digital ones, programmed to play seasonal tunes such as Christmas carols or timed chimes such as on the hour.

I told my boyfriend about my curiosity and he wanted to see the thing. So one day we drove by and stopped to take a look at the carillon. The door to the carillon turned out to be a painted sheet of plywood held in place by one screw and some rocks. So we figured it wouldn’t hurt if we just took a quick look inside. This is what we saw.

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