New clocks settle nicely into courthouse facade

An all-day job for workers from Smith’s Bell and Clock, new clocks were installed on the north and south walls of the Putnam County Courthouse Friday, a facelift that attracted a crowd of onlookers that included Heritage Preservation Society members, former clock caretakers and passers by enjoying the pleasant weather of Good Friday.

Banner Graphic/JARED JERNAGAN

‘Like it’s always been there'

It was a far cry from the crowd 15,000 that gathered when the courthouse was dedicated in 1905 or even the hundreds there for the old clock dedication in 1983, but a crowd gathered at the Putnam County Courthouse on Friday just the same.

The impending Easter holiday made for a Good Friday for contractors to work a bit more freely to install two new clocks on the north and south sides of the historic building.

Banner Graphic/JARED JERNAGAN

The new timepieces are striking in their appearance — large white faces with black hour markers and borders. The face will be backlit for ease of reading.

“It looks natural — like it’s always been there,” Lee Stewart said Friday.

Mike Hecko and Stewart have been the caretakers of the old clock for the last 13 years.

Banner Graphic/JARED JERNAGAN

The work of Smith’s Bell and Clock Service Inc., the installation was an all-day job on Friday, with the clocks fully installed by evening.

They will be set and begin running next week. Official dedication will come during the May 5 First Friday event.

Heritage Preservation Society has been pursuing the venture for several years, but its story goes back much further.

Banner Graphic/JARED JERNAGAN

It’s a project that has waited 112 years to fully come to fruition.

When the new building was unveiled in July 1905, it received positive reviews, but something was missing — no clocks graced the gables atop the north and south faces of the courthouse.

One former county councilman who observed the scene on Friday was blunt in his assessment of that fact, calling the early 1900s commissioners “too tight” to spring for the clocks.

“Those clocks had been a dream of mine for years when I was on the county council,” he said.

That was when a group of citizens in the early 1980s took on the challenge of installing a clock. In 1983, that work was done, but only on the south face.

While the old clock was attractive in appearance, it was also beset by problems. It was hard to read. Someone had to crawl through the face of it and onto a narrow ledge to change the bulbs that shone on it at night.

At some point, someone cut the wiring to it, leaving it unable to chime or even keep time.

Hecko and Stewart stepped in at that point, fixing the clock and chimes with the help of some spare parts including chimes purchased at a garage sale, an amplifier discarded by DePauw University and speakers off of an old fire truck.

For 13 years, the men have kept the clock and chimes running. The work included resetting the clock after any power outage and adjusting each time the time changes.

Friday marked a sort of retirement ceremony for them. Hecko handed over his courthouse key to Stewart, telling him, good naturedly, “I’m out of it. I’ve been fired.”

The plan is that such services will no longer be needed. The Smith clocks are self-setting, featuring digital chimes and amps and a lithium battery backup for auto time correction.

Not that their efforts haven’t been appreciated. Heritage Preservation Society representative Margaret Kenton heaped credit on Hecko for keeping the clock going all this time.

“It’s been an icon in this community and it all depended on this guy,” Kenton said.

The torch passed on Friday, with Hecko examining the north clock and its hands before speaking briefly with Smith’s Bell and Clock owner J.J. Smith, whose crews worked from early morning until nearly 7 p.m. to complete the project.

It included removing the old vent on the north side, as well as the window that occupied the space for nearly 80 years.

Stewart plans to restore the window, which will hang in the front window of the Putnam County Museum upon completion.

Then the Smith crew lifted the new clock into place, with the help of a donated Sunbelt Rentals lift, and placed the hands.

The process was then repeated on the south side with the old clock removed. HPS members emphasized that they have not found a permanent home for the old clock. However, they would like to find a taker who would preserve the clock and tell its story.

The second clock was also placed by Friday evening.

Until the new clocks are set, it remains high noon on both faces.

While Friday’s crowd of onlookers numbered only in the dozens — not counting passing motorists — they got to witness a bit of Putnam County history just the same.

Noting the crowd of thousands in 1905, Susan Stewart said it simply speaks to the differences in modern society.

“I’d imagine we’d have that many people here for something like this, if it were back then,” she said. “But we’ve become so scattered.”