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Century tower clock facts for kids

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Century clock bell
A bell from a Century clock

Century tower clocks were special clocks made by a man named Nels Johnson. He designed them to last for 100 years, which is why they were called "Century" clocks! Most of these amazing clocks were built between 1880 and 1910. Nels Johnson made about 50 to 60 of them all by himself.

Nels Johnson created these tower clocks in his workshop in Manistee, Michigan. He didn't have any employees, so he did all the work himself. This helped him keep his costs low. Because of this, he could often offer a lower price than his rivals. His main competitors were big companies like E. Howard & Co. and Seth Thomas Clock Company. These companies had large departments just for tower clocks, which meant they had higher costs. Nels Johnson often won the jobs because he could build the clocks for less money. The large bells he used for his clocks came from famous bell makers like Meneely in Troy, New York.

Where to Find Century Clocks

One of Nels Johnson's clocks was put in the Mason County Courthouse in Michigan in 1906. It was still working in 2010! This clock was actually first installed in a church in Manistee in 1892. The church later got a new clock in 1905, so the old one moved to the courthouse.

You can find other Century clocks in different places. There's one at a Lutheran Church in Rochester, New York, and another in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. Milwaukee, Wisconsin, has three of them! You can also find them in Big Rapids, Michigan, and Postville, Iowa. One of his most beautiful clocks was in the famous Fort Street Union Depot railroad station in Detroit, Michigan.

Here are some other places where Nels Johnson's clocks were installed:

  • Los Angeles Times Building (1912) in Los Angeles
  • San Jose Post Office (1909)
  • The Michigan Building at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair
  • Detroit Post Office (1891) in Detroit
  • A bank in Holland, Michigan
  • Lansing City Hall in Lansing, Michigan
  • Lyman Building (1889) in Muskegon, Michigan
  • St. Joseph Court House in St. Joseph, Michigan
  • Faith Church (1905) in Pelican Falls, Minnesota
  • U. S. Customs House at Memphis, Tennessee
  • Milwaukee City Hall
  • Emmanuel's Evangelical Lutheran Church (1890) of Milwaukee
  • Bethlehem Evangelical Lutheran Church (1891) of Milwaukee
  • Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church (1894) of Milwaukee
  • Winneshiek County Courthouse, Iowa (1903)

In his hometown of Manistee, you could find his clocks at:

  • St. Joseph's Polish Catholic Church (1894)
  • First Methodist Episcopal Church (1893)
  • Johnson's Machine Shop (around 1889)

Nels Johnson's clocks even went to other countries! One was installed in Chengtu, China, in 1914. Another was at the Isabella Thoburn College in Lucknow, India, in 1910. Nels Johnson didn't travel to these faraway places to set up the clocks. However, he personally installed every one of his tower clocks in the United States.

Some of these old buildings with Nels Johnson's clocks are gone now. For example, the Cheboygan county courthouse was taken down in 1970. The Detroit Post Office was demolished in 1931. But some clocks are still ticking! The San Jose Post Office is now the San Jose Museum of Art, and its tower clock is still there. The U.S. Custom House in Memphis, Tennessee, built in 1885, is now a law school, and its clock is also still working.

Images for kids

References

  • Record Publishing Company (Chicago), Portrait and biographical record of northern Michigan: containing portraits and biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens, together with biographies of all the presidents of the United States, 1895
  • Fedynsky, John, Michigan's County Courthouses, University of Michigan, 2010, ISBN: 978-0-472-11728-4
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