In Las Vegas the drive toward imitation is matched only by the drive toward legitimacy. Both urges may be coming together soon in Downtown, where a group of prominent judges and attorneys are trying to bring a full-size replica of the Liberty Bell—crack and all—right alongside Oscar's River park.
Two years ago, former Nevada federal judge Lloyd George called together members of Nevada's legal community during a conference in Phoenix, where members of the bar there hoped to take over an old courthouse and turn it into a legal museum. Inspired to try something similar in Las Vegas, a group of judges and attorneys formed the Let Freedom Ring Executive Committee, a group trying to bring a series of educational displays about the law to Downtown Las Vegas.
The plan is to link the Lloyd George Federal Courthouse and the Regional Justice Center with kiosk-like exhibits highlighting the development of legal traditions, everything from Roman law and Napoleonic law to African tribal law and Hammurabi's Code. The committee also plans displays exploring the Magna Carta, English common law, and our own Declaration of Independence. At the federal courthouse, displays will focus on landmark U.S. court cases like Marbury vs. Madison and Brown vs. Board of Education.
Organizers say the project is the only one of its kind in the United States. "As far as we know we're cutting new ground here, certainly as far as collaboration between the United Stated District Court and state court," says John Mowbray, co-chair of the committee.
The linchpin of the project will be a replica of the Liberty Bell, which will be sited on the grounds of the old Fifth Street School. It will also stand right next to Oscar's River, the block-long pedestrian ramble just west of the federal courthouse. "We couldn't think of a better icon to personify the struggles of birthing our nation," says Mowbray. The original bell "told of the struggles of the birth of our nation when the controversy was still in doubt."
The Nevada bell will have a different purpose, to highlight the role of lawyers and judges in society. But before you can reach for the nearest lawyer joke, Mowbray points out that 50 percent of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were jurists or lawyers. "We want to make someone more curious than they otherwise would be to study these things."
Just as important, the bell will be in the center of new park space Downtown that will strengthen the pedestrian promenade of Oscar's River and give that part of the core city a real sense of place.
According to the online Liberty Bell Museum, America's first liberty bell was ordered for the Pennsylvania Assembly in 1751; the Whitechapel Bell Foundry in London cast the bell. It cracked the very first time it was struck. A new bell was recast in 1753—that's our historical Liberty Bell. It cost $225.
"What we've done is a contemporary Liberty Bell Monument," says Scott Avjian, who designed the project. The design, he says, was inspired by Red Rock Canyon— two polished silver blades encased in a pair of sandstone columns will hold up the bell. "The design also picks up on the Lloyd George Courthouse, and also the stone sort of reminds you of the sandstone of the Regional Justice Center," says co-committee co-chair Connie Akridge.
The bell will be nearly identical to the original. Like its namesake it will weigh 2,080 pounds, will have the same composition of copper, tin and lead, and will share the same half-inch-wide, 24.5-inch-long crack. Both bells make the same note when struck, E-flat. The major difference is that the yoke supporting the bell at its top will not be made of wood, because of the state's harsh summers.
Mowbray says the completion of the entire project—displays and bell—is slated for 10 years, although it may be finished well before then. The bell has already been ordered and is being cast in Europe. It's slated to arrive in October. The total project is budgeted at $200,000, although no city funds are being used. To date, $47,000 has been raised.
Interestingly, Nevada already has a replica of the Liberty Bell. According to the online museum, in 1950 the U.S. Treasury Department commissioned a French foundry "to cast 55 full-size replicas of the bell for every state, U.S. territory and for the District of Columbia." The Silver State's bell sits outside the Nevada State Museum in Carson City. Might it not have been easier for the Let Freedom Ring committee to simply requisition that one?
"I don't think they'd let us," Avjian says with a chuckle. "Since Vegas is becoming so big we need our own."