Raleigh firefighters are celebrating the return of a piece of their history.

The City's first fire bell was returned to the department Wednesday during a ceremony at the Dawson Street fire station.

The bell, cast in 1870, went missing after its bell tower was demolished in 1938.

Historians said it's not clear where the bell went, but it eventually showed up at North Carolina State University by 1948.

The bell went largely unnoticed for decades until last year when graduate student Matthew Robbins was doing research and came across the bell.

"When I went on top of this other building and I found this bell. I said ‘this doesn't belong here,'" he said.

After doing more research, Robbins said he discovered the bell belonged to the Raleigh Fire Department.

NCSU Chancellor James Oblinger handed the bell over to the department during Wednesday's ceremony.

"We're just happy that we could be a part of having it preserved and having it come back into possession of the citizens of Raleigh," said Raleigh Fire Chief John McGrath.

McGrath said the bell will be temporarily stored at the department's Wilmington Street training center until it becomes a centerpiece of the new Public Safety Center.

"It's a breath of relief because it's another chapter closed," Robbins said. "To put a piece of history rightfully back where it belongs is astounding."