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 Meeting Will Be on March 9th, 2025

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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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