The Clocktower

My good friend Philip used to work at the Lamar Life Building in Jackson, MS. Built in 1925, it is "A Capitol Street landmark for over 70 years and Jackson's first skyscraper. Its unusual gothic design complements the circa 1903 St. Andrews Episcopal Church, seen in the foreground."

At first he worked on the second floor, but eventually they moved to the top floor right under the clock tower. There was a door that allowed us access to the roof, which was a great place to sit and watch the downtown area, enjoy the weather, or do a little bagpipe practice.







We always wanted to see the inner workings of the clock tower. It is huge! I believe each clock face is about 15 feet across. The clock hands are counter-weighted. It is easily visible from anywhere downtown.

Useless trivia: I learned (from watching the making of Back to the Future) that clock towers have four 'I's for the 4, instead of the normal roman numeral 'IV'. Unless pointed out, I don't think anyone would ever notice.






Once inside, you immediately turn left and climb a flight of stairs to the level of the clock faces. What secrets lie ahead? Huge gears? Weights? Motors? Quasimodo?














Cool! All the clocks' hands come to a central gear-cube/box (sorry, don't know the technical term). From there they are all driven by a single shaft heading straight down. The wooden frames around the clock faces have banks of fluorescent lights to backlight them at night.





Here is a tighter shot of working assembly. Believe it or not, all the clock face hands are driven by a very small motor about the size of a sewing machine motor! You can see it there with the blue wires, it drives a screw gear to the left which eventually turns all the gears up top. A little dissapointing, we were hoping for swinging pendulums! Apparently there were pendulums at one time, because there were long slots cut out of the floor which would allow them to swing freely.

I left this pic high res so you could see the lubrication bottle down front by the rag. It says "Clock Oil". It's "nonhazardous" and comes from the "National Time" company. Of course! What else would you expect?



On the side you can see it was made by the Seth Thomas Clock company in Thomastonn, CN, on July 28, 1924. It is apparently the 2368th clock they made. There is a miniature clock (I'm not sure if thats just for reference or if thats how you set it) and a sweeping second hand on the mid-bar.













But wait! Thats not all!

In the corner there is a ladder going to the top of the tower where the flag pole is!












From the very top you have a great view of the whole downtown Jackson area. You can see the old capitol right by my hand, and the Coliseum in the background.







Here is a (not exactly seamless) Quicktime Panorama of your view from the flag pole! CLICK THE PIC FOR A PANORAMA (Note: You'll need the Quicktime player to view it)






Directly across from the Lamar Life building is the Governor's Mansion for the state of Mississippi.
It is the second oldest continuously occupied governor’s residence in the United States.

Note my old glasses, nicknamed the "Hubbles". They were quite large and heavy, and could burn objects if held right.








On our way out, we noticed several of these OLD glass-case batteries. I guess at one time they were used to run the clock, or at least run it if the power failed.