An 1871 church bell in Edgartown that has sat dormant for nearly 20 years is back ringing again. Originally cast as a church bell for the Methodist Church, it spent most of the last century perched high atop the Edgartown Town Hall serving as a general fire alarm bell.

Made of “bell bronze,” a special alloy of tin and copper, the antique bell now hangs from a new stationary stainless steel yoke next door to the Edgartown Fire Station Museum. The bell’s new role is to ring during ceremonies and for funeral services.

Prior to the move, the bell sat silent on a concrete stand in front of the Edgartown Fire Station.

Andrew Kelly, a lieutenant at the Edgartown Fire Department, and an active firefighting historian with his father Richard, began the effort this past year to raise funds to move the bell. They did it with the help of community preservation funds.

The idea for the project began two years ago when Greg Blaine, an Edgartown welder, helped the town and the Martha’s Vineyard Preservation Trust remount their church bell in the belfry atop the Edgartown Whaling Church. With bells on the brain, Mr. Blaine then noticed the 1871 bell sitting silent on a concrete stand in front of the fire station. After approaching the fire department about moving the bell, he welded the new frame out of a number of cut pieces of eight-inch diameter stainless steel pipe. Completed, it looks like a solid piece.

The bell is 37 inches high and weighs 2,060 pounds. Mr. Blaine said it weighs hundreds of pounds more than the bell atop the Edgartown Whaling Church and it is not as old. The inscription on the bell reads: “Cast by William Blake & Co., formerly H.N. Hooper & Co., Boston, MA AD 1871.”

Andrew Kelly believes the bell was taken down from the town hall cupola in the mid-1980s, after concerns arose that it might fall through the roof, and into the building.

A search through newspaper articles in the Vineyard Gazette show the bell was occasionally decorated for special events.

Looking ahead, Mr. Kelly said the next effort will be to cover the cement bell foundation with commemorative bricks. Each brick will have a name cut on the surface, and will be sold to raise money to further the mission of the fire museum.