Spot a Clock: St. Casimir Church

This month’s ‘Spot a Clock’ is St. Casimir Church, 2600 North Bremen Street, Milwaukee. In the 1870’s Polish immigrants settling on the east side of Milwaukee established St. Hedwig’s Church.

By the 1890’s, the Polish community had spread north and west of Brady Street. A new parish was subsequent established to serve this area. A school was first constructed. Designed by Henry Messmer, the school was completed in 1894. Due to the subsequent growth of the parish, fundraising began to build a church. The building was designed by Erhart Brielmaier and Sons. The cornerstone was set in 1899, and the building was completed by 1901. The church is of Victorian Gothic style, and is constructed with cream city brick.

As with many of Milwaukee’s churches, the movement in the four-sided clock tower was manufactured by Mathias Schwalbach. According to Fredrick M. Shelley’s database, this movement has been electrified. The church is well-appointed with beautiful plaster-work and stained glass.

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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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