Built in 1896, St. Francis of Assisi Church burned to the ground on April 12, 1957, the Friday before Holy Week, when a fire broke out at 10:20 p.m., and the rectory was also destroyed. Father Luke Hally kept the broken bell until his death in 1970. Within a few months, the bell was sold by mistake and hauled away by a junk dealer, but James Christini, John Evangelisti, and Charles Burke brought it back the next day. On July 4, 1983, Stanley Bohensky Sr. arranged with Ernest Menold to have the bell repaired and to make its support, and their efforts preserved its memories.