EASLEY — There’s an old saying that even a broken clock is right twice a day. Such is the case with the clock tower in downtown Easley’s Old Market Square.
The old clock hasn’t worked properly in years, but efforts are currently underway to repair the City’s timekeeper.
“It was just old, deteriorated,” said Troy Williams, a contractor tech. with The Verdin Company, hired to fix the clock. “The faces and the clockworks will be replaced and the lighting will be updated to LED. This will save the city money, LED costs a lot less.”
Whoa, hang on — it’s not going to be a digital clock now, is it?
“No,” Williams laughed. “Definitely not.”
Good.
Williams said the hour strike chime was still functional, but the timing mechanism was damaged — which is why the clock would often sound at odd times throughout the day instead of on the hour as it was supposed to. But don’t worry, he’s fixing that too — eventually.
With the help of two City of Easley employees from the Public Works dept., Billy Holcombe and Chauncey Thompson, Williams started working on the clock on Monday with the hopes of finishing up by Wednesday, March 11. Unfortunately, they hit a snag …
“Yeah, the new (clock) faces are too big,” said Thompson. “Somebody’s not going to be very happy about this.”
The new clock faces are 48 inches — the holes they need to fit into are 45.
According to Williams, when he was originally contracted to work on the clock, it was supposed to be to just repair and replace the “guts.” Basically, the city just wanted to get her ticking again. Later, it was decided by city officials to replace the whole workings — faces and all — so they wouldn’t have to keep doing repairs on the structure every few years.
“The problem is these old clock towers are all unique, there’s no ‘cookie cutter’ template for them,” said Williams who explained that the old faces were braced in place obscuring the original openings — and preventing accurate measurements. The old clock faces did measure 48 inches — same as the new ones — but the only way to install them now would be to remove the entire roof of the clock tower.
Rather than tear the roof off, new faces will be on the way, but a spokesperson for the company said it could take 30-60 days before the faces are ready to go.
In the meantime (no pun intended) the 45-inch circular openings at the top are being boarded up to protect the inside of the structure from the weather.
The history of the clock tower is a long one. The structure today is dedicated to Charles E. Ellenburg, who served as Mayor of Easley from 1971-1975 and again from 1977-1983.
It was Ellenburg who originally conceived of Old Market Square and, according to a 1974 article in The Easley Progress, he got the ball rolling with the City’s Planning Commission.
The article stated Old Market Square was designed at the direction of the City of Easley’s Planning Commission by an Atlanta, Ga., planning firm and an architect out of Spartanburg. Their design included $500,000 in funding from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
The plan was approved in 1972 with the intention of having everything all wrapped up in time for the city’s Centennial Celebration, to be held the first week of October, 1974.
During the celebration, the tower was dedicated and a time capsule was sealed beneath the floor of the structure.
The clock itself comes from Easley’s third City Hall — which burned to the ground in 1924. Of the fire, only the clock works and a fire brigade wagon were recovered.
The clock was used for a time in Easley’s fourth City Hall, before being moved to it’s final spot in the tower. The bricks used to construct the tower came from the family home of State Sen. Harris Smith, which was torn down in 1973 in order to construct the Square.
