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By Eric Ryback, restorer and owner, Saint Louis Street Clock Company

Street Clocks & Their Restoration

“I never wore a watch. I always depend on public clocks, decorative pieces that may need to be replaced or welded back together.
and stores have clocks, but that is strange.” Any missing parts are recast in iron using patterns created from existing
parts or a new pattern is created by making a casting of the original.
– Ben Katchor, American cartoonist and illustrator
At this stage of restoration, the cast iron needs to be primed before
being painted with either a two-part epoxy paint or a powder coating.
veryone grows attuned to the After painting or powder coating, all the steel bolts and screws
passing of time in one way or are replaced with stainless steel, and the bolt holes are re-drilled
Eanother, whether it is the sun in and tapped.
the sky or the watch on their wrist, or
the face of their phone. In the early Glass: The next step in the restoration is
1870s, the awareness of time as people making new dials if the existing ones
moved through their day was a service cannot be salvaged (which is more often
provided by the corner Post Clock the case). Dials were often replaced with
(Street Clock). These four-faced cast white plexiglass or clear glass backed with
iron clocks were typically owned by a white vinyl.
nearby jeweler, bank, insurance Original dials were made of frosted
company, railroad, or a government glass and the backs painted white.
agency to draw attention to the time, Numerals and letters were hand-painted
and to the businesses that owned and on the face. Beginning in 1906 a pig-
maintained the Street Clock as a form mented structural glass was manufactured
of public service.
30-inch Vitrolite dial carved by Marietta Manufacturing Company
and painted for a (1890-1925). The Company originally
History Brown Street Clock made glass building materials, lamp
Vintage street clocks were made of chimneys, and was located in Redkey,
all cast iron by craftsmen during the Indiana from 1890 to 1903 before
height of the industrial age. According moving to Indianapolis where it stayed
to the Seth Thomas and E. Howard until the company was dissolved in 1981.
Clock Company records, the earliest According to one of its advertisements,
Restored 1910 Brown Street street clocks were manufactured in the Marietta Glass Manufacturing Company
Clock with a Seth Thomas No.2 early-1870s. The clocks were located was also known for its milk-white “Opal”
auto-winder.
on the sidewalk in front of a business rough-rolled glass in “fancy patterns.”
as a means of advertising that could be seen by those nearby and going A short time later, Libby–Owens-Ford
by on horseback, trolley, and later by car. Glass Company (est. 1898 as the Edward
By the end of the 1940s, the street clocks that survived had become Ford Plate Glass Company) began
known as the “Main Street Clock” in the heart of cities and towns production of their own version of
across America. Over the decades many street clocks were hit and structural glass called Vitrolite. Described
damaged by delivery trucks and automobiles as the result of being close in a company catalog as “colorful,
Circa 1915 two-dial
to the curb. Therefore, vintage street clocks have become extremely Brown Street Clock head structural glass for storefronts and
rare. There is not an accurate estimate as to just how many street clocks with original hand-painted residential use,” the glass was designed
have survived. The existing street clocks are usually owned by Vitrolite dial for a variety of uses in the kitchen and
municipalities that had the foresight to save them, and some are in the bathroom.
hands of private collectors. Vitrolite had ribbing on the back side of the
glass which helped defuse light when backlit.
Restoration: Iron, Glass, Quickly, clock companies began using Vitrolite
as a substitute for frosted glass. The Vitrolite
and Wood or Metal
Glass was 5/16” thick. The clock face numerals
and letters were first carved into the surface of
Iron: A complete restoration of a street clock
starts with taking the clock down and apart. the glass and then painted.
The cast-iron components made up the three At the very outside of the face of the clock
outer components of the clock: the head, was an outer protective glass. Because it was in
column, and base. front of the dials, this part of the street clock is
Decades of layers of paint and rust are typically highly weather-worn. It was replaced
removed by sandblasting using steel grit. Restored 1920 Seth Thomas No.2 cast iron with a low iron glass fitted into the bezels sealed
Sandblasting the cast iron not only removes sign ornament. Powder-coated, gold-leafed with silicon. According to dillmeierglass.com,
the paint and rust but also reveals any cracks and with raised aluminum letters. “Float glass manufacturers create low-iron glass,

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