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.

Recent Posts

Our Meeting Will Be on March 9th, 2025

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.

Doors open at 9:00 for setup and mart. Mike Dempsey will be continue discussing Balance staff and hairspring replacement beginning at 10:00 during the mart.  The first part was presented in the October meeting.  Educational talk at 11:00 by Danno entitled “The one that got away, moving a Schwalbach Tower Clock Movement.”

We also 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.

Our planned demonstration at the March  mart will be Balance staff and hairspring replacement, part 2 (Dempsey)

Craig White gave a hands-on demonstration of silvering a dial.  Surface preparation and actually adding silver to the surface was demonstrated.  This was followed by lacquering or waxing.

Craig White then gave a PowerPoint talk on Restoring a Scottish Musical Tall Case Clock, or Nock as the Scottish would call it.  The Clock was made by James Gray and the musical portion made by Anthony Jeeves around 1774.  The clock plays 10 individual tunes by a selector dial.  Music plays at 10, 1, 6 & 9 or on command.  This is called Presbyterian strike which is defined by the clock playing at certain times of the day and silent at night.  The specific times are selected by maker and usually had religious reasons.
The replacement of some missing pins was shown as well as cleaning and adjusting.  A missing pully was recreated to match the originals and the technique was shown on how this was done. 
The hands, finials were verified as originals by comparing to other clock by the same maker.

We still need some volunteer for talks for 2025.  Please contact Harry Schulz or myself with ideas or suggestions.

Educational Talks Planned for 2025:

May 2025      Isaac Rogers Turkish Dial Lantern Clock Restoration, by Craig White
Sept 2025     Open
Nov. 2025     Open

Free tables!!  A free silent auction table will also be available.

Hope to see you all there. 
Thanks,
Craig

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