NORTHBRIDGE — After more than 30 years, the George H. Holbrook bell has come home.

Business owner Bud Brown had given the approximately 300-pound bronze bell and forge tools to Old Sturbridge Village when he closed the Whitinsville Spinning Ring Co. in the Paul Whitin Mill in the late 1970s.

The bell was transferred back to the mill in a ceremony yesterday.

Historical Commission Chairman Kenneth Warchol dressed as Paul Whitin Sr. in 1826; Old Sturbridge Village Curator Thomas D. Kelleher was also dressed in clothing of the period.

Mr. Warchol, who was at the ceremony more than 30 years ago when the bell was donated to the museum, gave Mr. Kelleher a copy of Thomas R. Navin’s book “The Whitin Machine Works Since 1831.”

A seventh-generation member of the Whitin family, Westboro resident Harry T. Whitin, retired editor of the Telegram & Gazette, attended the bell transfer with his brother, James T. Whitin of Westport. They presented Mr. Kelleher with a 1900 picture of the mill with the bell in the cupola on top of the building.

“It’s been a long time coming,” Mr. Warchol said to Mr. Kelleher. “I’m glad to see my bell coming back.”

“It’s aged well,” Shirley A. Haglund said to somebody who was standing next to her.

She is an administrator at Alternatives Unlimited, which is in the refurbished 1826 red-brick mill that once housed the Spinning Ring Co.

After the ceremony, Mr Warchol said it was a sad day when the bell left town.

Yesterday was a much happier day, he added.

Mr. Kelleher said that when Mr. Brown closed the Whitinsville Spinning Ring Co., concern for the historical bell prompted its move to OSV.

Alternatives Unlimited had been trying for many years to have the bell returned, and the upgrading of the former Paul Whitin Mill provided the impetus for the return, Mr. Kelleher said. All historical items are significant, but their importance increases when they are placed in context and returned to their original place, Mr. Kelleher said.

Alternatives Unlimited Executive Director Dennis H. Rice said the agency, which helps people with disabilities and their families, was “grateful for the generosity of the board of directors and administration of Old Sturbridge Village.”

Mr. Rice said Alternatives Unlimited has received a $160,000 matching grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Facility Fund. He said about $20,000 has to be raised locally, and once that is done, in about six months, the bell will be placed inside the cupola.

Back during the time of the Paul Whitin Mill, the bell was rung to let people know it was time to go to work, and Mr. Rice said the plan is to ring it once and possibly twice a day, once it is safely placed in the cupola.

“I’m very happy the bell is back,” Mr. Rice said. “Very happy. It sort of completes the building.”

In an interview after the ceremony, Harry Whitin, who said Paul Whitin was his great-great-great-great-grandfather, also said it was nice to see the bell back in town.

“I think it’s sort of like a capstone to the project,” he said. “It’s a wonderful thing for the community.”

The bell was made in 1833 by George H. Holbrook, who was an apprentice of Paul Revere.