05/27/2026
Late in 2004, the Didsbury Museum received the Carillon as a gift from an old Didsbury church. Many in town are familiar with the sounds of the Carillon as it plays random songs each day at 3:00pm from the belltower of the Didsbury Museum, but it wasn’t in working condition when it was first donated to the museum.
The church it came from, now a private residence, was built in 1934 after the previous Zion Evangelical Church caught fire and burned to the ground. In 1946, because of a merger between the Evangelical Church and the United Brethren Church, the little church by the post office became known as the Zion Evangelical Brethren Church. Then in 1968 as the result of another merger, this time with the Methodist Church, it became known as the United Methodist Church.
Jerry Kaita (pictured here) and his wife Judy were volunteers at the museum back in 2004. No documents were with the carillon, so Kaita had a struggle finding out how to do things. He was looking on the internet and found a church in Minnesota giving one away.
“I called them up and they had the manual for it,” said Kaita. “They copied it and sent it to me. It is quite a mechanical piece of equipment.”
Kaita managed to get the carillon working again and is excited to set it up in the Museum. It has been chiming to the community ever since.
