Clock tower restoration moving forward after lengthy hurdle

The restoration of the clock tower atop the Jasper County Courthouse is continuing after a lengthy process which required historical accuracy.

Due to its historic status and grant funds received by the State Historical Society of Iowa for the project, approval from the society was needed on several aspects of the restoration and the glass used on the clock became an issue.

“The hold up was the glass itself,” county maintenance director Adam Sparks said. “We were trying to get the state historical society to agree to replace all of the glass because we couldn’t find a glass to replace the existing glass.”

The glass, which is located on the face of the clocks, is divided into 13 pieces on each side for a total of 52 individual pieces of glass. Sparks said more than half of those pieces were broken and the historical society was pushing to have exact or similar glass put in place of the broken pieces.

The problem came when the restoration company, Smith’s Bell and Clock Company of Indiana, tried to find the requested glass. After an extensive search, no comparable glass was available to be used on the clock tower.

“Anybody who knows nothing about glass would have been able to tell each place where there was an old one and a new one,” Sparks said. “It would have looked like checkers.”

The historical society eventually agreed with the architect working on the project to replace all of the glass on the clock faces. The new glass is now with the restoration company being cut and prepared for the clock tower.

Sparks said the rest of the clock is ready to go. The scope of the project included a complete restoration of the clock tower to bring it back to historical museum grade. That includes, in part, removal and reinstallation of the clock and hand assemblies, restoration of factory finish to all wheels, arbors and pinions dial panels, with a coat of microcrystalline wax applied for rust protection, replacing any missing pieces, restoring the original four-way differential, replacing glass dial panels with UV protected sign quality colycarbontate and refinish and recoat existing cast iron dial frames.

The restoration work started in September when the clock was dismantled and moved out of the courthouse. An original timeline of 12 weeks was anticipated but due to the issues with the glass, it has been extended to complete the project.

A final date for reinstallation has not yet been set, Sparks said.

Contact Jamee A. Pierson at 641-792-3121 ext. 6534 or jpierson@newtondailynews.com