Spot A Clock: Clock Tower Building, N. Prospect Ave.

September 2014 “Spot a Clock”
This month’s ‘Spot a Clock’ is the Clock Tower Building, located at 2266 North Prospect Avenue in Milwaukee.

The portion of the building with the clock was constructed in 1926 by Coakley Brothers, a Milwaukee-based warehousing and shipping company.. Alexander Eschweiler, the architect of the Wisconsin Gas Building, designed an addition that was constructed in 1928. The current building owner leases space out to a variety of businesses, and features the clock in their promotional materials.

The NAWCC’s Seth Thomas records indicate that the movement for this clock was a Seth Thomas Model 6, serial number 2504. A trip to the clock tower, however, found an electrified movement. The transfer gears from the original installation are still present and in use.

According to the Seth Thomas records, the clock dial was constructed with the letters “COAKLEY BROS” instead of the standard numerals. The current dials feature numerals, and show evidence of modification at some point in the past.

One may ask, what happened to the original movement. If you have been to the NAWCC Museum, you have seen it. The Seth Thomas tower clock movement from this building is on display.

If you would like to suggest a clock for the newsletter’s ‘Spot a Clock’, please contact Ed Buc at the Chapter meetings or by email.

September Spot a Clock— Can you guess the location of this clock? unnamedSeptClockThe answer will be posted at the September meeting, by the coffee.

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Our next Mart will be on March 10th, 2024

Presidents Message,

We will continue to need some help setting up and taking down.  So arrive at 9:00 and help setup and stay after the educational talk to help return the room in the condition we found it in.  Thank you for your help in this.

Opens at 9:00 for setup and mart.
Robert Olney will be demonstrating glass cutting beginning at 10:00 during the mart.
Educational talk at 11:00.
Cleanup at 12:00.

We need a new secretary.  The main job is just to put this newsletter together.  Please offer to help so no one is overburdened, only takes around an hour per meeting.

We have some demonstrations planned for upcoming meetings as follows:

  • Mar – Glass cutting (Robert Olney)
  • May – Re-pivoting clock and watch arbors (Dempsey)
  • Sep– Balance staff and hairspring replacement (Dempsey)
  • Nov – Winding clock & watch mainsprings (Osterud/Dempsey)
  • Jan – Resilver dials (White)

We had to presentations at our February mart. Harry Schultz gave a talk on Making a Calendar Wheel to replace a damaged wheel from an English Tall Case Clock.  He created a “simple” dividing plate and used it to layout his part.  He then cut the teeth with a splitting saw and jewelers saw.  After the part was cut Harry then filed it to shape and fitted it to the clock. Thanks Harry for this informative talk.

Michael Figueira discussed letting down the spring on a 1986 vintage Elgin 400-day clock.  This clock is known as a German time bomb.  It received this nickname from its less than obvious way to let down the tension in the mainspring. Letting the spring down incorrectly can cause the clock to rapidly disintegrate. Mike has successfully let down the spring, rebuilt the movement and currently keeps the clock in his wife’s sewing room for some reason. It is kept away from where his wife sits!

Thanks to Harry and Michael for these informative talks.

“A group of timepiece enthusiasts is gathering weekly in Mukwonago on Thursday evenings through April 11. The group consists mainly of former students of the defunct WCTC community extracurricular education program, and is seeking to expand its attendance with anyone who has an interest in learning about timepieces OR SHARING THEIR KNOWLEDGE. Currently, the meetings are BYOC (bring your own clock). As the attendees work on their timepieces, they share advice and opinions, troubleshoot and converse. If interested in attending, contact Kevin Schultz at usmc2nbpd@yahoo.com.”

Future educational talks planned:

  • March 10 – Danno will make a Presentation on Renaissance and other Clocks at the Milwaukee Art Museum.
  • May 19 – Craig White will make a presentation “Restoring a Scottish Musical Tall Case Clock”
  • Sept 22 – Amelia Osterud will give a talk entitled “Chauncey Jerome vs PT Barnum: The Great Bankruptcy of 1856”
  • Nov 17 – ?

We still need a volunteers for talks for 2024 & 2025.  Please contact Harry Schulz or myself with ideas or suggestions.  

Free tables!!  A free silent auction table will also be available.  We had some more clocks donated which the chapter will be selling at the silent auction table.

Hope to see you all there.
Thanks,
Craig

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