Mission Inn - Riverside Ca

[missioninnpat]

Hi; I am seeking bells from the collection of the Mission Inn, Riverside, CA. The hotel had a bell collection that numbered over 800. Many of the bells remain at the hotel, however over the years, and loss of interest in the collection, some bells were lost, stolen or sold. I am working on finding these missing bells and eventually donating them back to the hotel's museum collection. Typically these bells had metal tags with numbers on them. The numbers matched a catalogue that described the bell and it's history. The hotel sold many bells in the gift shop, a few may hold my interest, but they sold hundreds of identical bells. If you have a Mission Inn bell, or other related Mission Inn ephemera, I'd love to hear from you! Thanks, missioninnpat

[maxkurillo]

Hi missioninnpat, The job of restoring the bell collection to the Misssion Inn is quite a challange. Is the Mission Inn aware that you are attempting this project? It seems reasonable that you know, or at least have a record , of the bells that are now still at the Mission Inn, compare that to the original list and then you will know what to look for in the way of bells. My suggestion would be to get names and address of ALL the employees of the time period and personelly contact them concering the "lost" bells. Then you can tell us what you are looking for, this present generation knows nothing of the Mision Inn much less the bell collection they had. You have a lot of work to do, Best wishes let us know how things are going. Max Kurillo

[missioninnpat]

Sue:

Thank you so much for sharing the link. This is one of many similar bells sold in the gift shop. It is a fine example and I appreciate your thoughtfulness in bringing it to my attention. Thank you. Patrick

[missioninnpat]

Hi missioninnpat, The job of restoring the bell collection to the Misssion Inn is quite a challange. Is the Mission Inn aware that you are attempting this project? It seems reasonable that you know, or at least have a record , of the bells that are now still at the Mission Inn, compare that to the original list and then you will know what to look for in the way of bells. My suggestion would be to get names and address of ALL the employees of the time period and personelly contact them concering the "lost" bells. Then you can tell us what you are looking for, this present generation knows nothing of the Mision Inn much less the bell collection they had. You have a lot of work to do, Best wishes let us know how things are going. Max Kurillo

Hi Max Kurillo:

Thank you for your thoughtful post. Your suggestion is quite clever and would take a unique individual to complete. The hotel has been open and operating for over 100 years. That list of employees would be quite long.

It is my goal to network with "Bell Lovers" to see if they have leads or Mission Inn Bells in their own collections. Reading between the lines I share your concern that the Bells of the Inn find their way back to the hotel. I encourage any bell collector that has a bell from the hotel's collection to contact the Mission Inn Museum directly if they wish.

http://www.missioninnmuseum.com/home/index.htm

The Mission Inn Foundation is always happy to work with donors to return items back to their home, at the Inn. Yes, they are aware of this posting as well.

I appreciate your comments and suggestions.

Patrick

[mandycdm]

There are a couple souvenir Mission Inn bells on an online auction site right now. Just type in keywords: "Mission Inn Bell" and they will come up.

[admin]

Dear Mandy,

I have edited your posting to remove the name of the online auction site to which you referred. Knowing that you are new and have just discovered our website, you are probably not aware that we do not allow the posting of bells that are for sale on other sites. We know your intentions are honorable and you were trying to be helpful. We appreciate that.

We hope you will continue to enjoy looking at our website and we hope you will continue to post.

Thanks for your understanding.

Admin (Carolyn)