Time has stopped in Huntsville.
“Today I heard people talking,” says Clear Lake resident Barb Greig. “Hey it's the wrong time. What’s wrong?”
The clock wasn’t struck by lightning like the famous Hill Valley clock tower in Back to the Future. Instead, the clock along Main Street is just on vacation starting today while repairs are done.
“The floor joists have deteriorated as happens in any building, especially (one) this old,” says Teri Souter, manager of arts, culture and heritage with the Town of Huntsville. “It was constructed and opened in 1927, so over time those wooden beams have deteriorated. We've had a temporary solution in place and now we are looking forward to a more permanent solution.”
Darren Rouse with the construction team says they’re raising the clock tower building and fixing the structure underneath “so it will last another hundred years.”
The clock, which was made in Boston, was a gift from the City of Toronto in the 1920s and used to be in the old Union Station before it was torn down. For many it's an important landmark.
For Robert Greig, Emsdale resident, it’s got a long history and is “something that grabs you just like Ben in England.”
Other places are also looking to follow Huntsville's lead and invest in their towns in similar ways.
“The clock and this building indicated their willingness as a municipality to invest in their downtown, to revitalize their downtown,” says Bancroft Coun. Peter Whitehead. “It's something I hope that we at Bancroft can aspire to.”
The clock isn’t just left to its own devices. It’s had a caretaker for a long time. Terry Smith, a clock repairman at Northey Jewellers, has been caring for the clock since 1973, spending 30 minutes once per week winding a 1,800-pound weight. He oils the clock whenever it needs it.
He says these repairs are crucial to keeping the clock mechanisms working.
“The biggest part of the tower is to secure the structure because it's leaking and allowing moisture to come in and obviously because the clock has steel working parts on it,” he says. “The rust will perforate the metal and eventually it will wear so we don't have a good working mechanism up there.”
Smith says there is a lot of stress being put on the arms, which run out of the clock face and are about eight feet long.
“If they are not lined straight then it starts to put pressure on it and we can't keep the hands lined up properly,” he says.
The cable that holds the pendulum has been replaced just once in more than 80 years.
The project is expected to take a couple of weeks to finish. Until then, if you're downtown you’ll have to rely on a watch or cell phone.
