Repairs on Gainesville’s historical Seth Thomas clock tower have begun, and the final touches to the clock could be finished in the next month.
The clock tower, at East University Avenue and NE First Street, has not ticked since June 25, 2015. City officials looked for a solution for months before calling Fred North.
North completed repairs for the brick and wooden tower portion in late February and is now taking care of the clock.
“It just needs to be cleaned,” North said. The carpenter has been taking care of the landmark for about five years, and said that the clock contains about 30 years of grime.
Susie Frazier, a Gainesville native, frequently sits in front of the tower while waiting for members of her religious organization. She said she’s surprised that such an old landmark is mostly untouched by people in town and has no graffiti. She said that it shows how much the town respects the tower.
“People downtown walking, you know, you can just take a look up there and there’s a beautiful building that has an old fashioned clock,” Frazier said.
According to the historical plaque on the landmark, the clock has existed since 1885, when it was built along with the old Alachua County Courthouse. In 1983, Theodore Crom, a well-known horologist, restored the clock and brought it back to its original location. He also led the effort to build the current clock tower. Crom’s son, Ted Crom, is working along with North on the clock repairs.
“We found so many issues up on top of the clock it’s no wonder it stopped working,” North said.
North said that he expects to start the finishing touches on the clock tower on March 28, when the gears of the clock will be thoroughly cleaned.
“You still have to take a toothbrush and scrub on everything,” he said. “It’s time consuming.”
Charlene Daughtry, a resident of Gainesville, sits in front of the tower six days a week while she waits for her bus.
“It’s nice, it’s nice and comfortable, and it’s peaceful sitting right here,” Daughtry said. “I would love to see it working."
“I look at it all the time to see what time it is and I can never get the correct time,” she said. “So I imagine a lot of people, you know, being around the homeless, being on the streets, they rely on it to see the time. It’d be awesome for them, really.”