Adam Prudhomme
Beaver Staff
For nearly 30 years the clock tower atop Napanee’s old post office has stood dormant, hands stuck in the same position, no hourly chime ringing out over downtown.
That’s about to change however as building owner Hubert Hogle is in the process of getting the 1888 clock running again. Using 21st Century technology, he’s hoping to have the clock working and chiming on the hour and half-hour within the next two months.
“They have a device that goes on it that is electric and is driven by some kind of computer,” said Hogle. “I looked into buying one from a firm in Maryland and they were going to make the machine. Each one is made specifically for the clock because each one had a little different gearing mechanism. I went to the heritage people and they would not approve it unless I had a qualified installer put it in so I just dropped it.”
That was about five years ago. Flash forward to today and he’s now working with Martin Elderhost, who has restored several similar clocks in Kingston.
The new mechanism is completely computerized, keeps perfect time and can even update itself for Daylights Savings. It can also be programmed so as to not chime too late into the evening.
As it stands now the old post office clock mechanism still functions, but needs to be wound by hand every four days. The clock tower is accessible through one of the units in the building. It’s driven by two heavy weights on cables and the pendulum swings 40 times a minute. Hogle estimates the clock went dormant sometime in the late 1980s when the tenant he had living in the building who was willing to wind the clock moved out. Hogle says at the time there wasn’t as much interest in heritage as there is today.
Hogle says he’s just waiting for Elderhost to finish some work in Kingston and then he’ll get started in Napanee with the hope the work will be done towards the end of December or early January.
Hogle purchased the building in 1986 after it had been abandoned for several years. It was left in ill repair and required plenty of cleaning and renovations to be functional again. He has since turned the building into a seven-unit apartment building with three commercial units on the ground level.
The building served as Napanee’s post office until 1969 and has served a number of functions since that time, most notably as a temporary town hall while the original town hall underwent some repairs. For too long, however, it sat vacant until Hogle took over ownership.
“It could have gone the way of Hotel Hollywood if someone hadn’t come in and rescued it in 1986,” said Hogle, noting the structure just one block away from the post office was recently torn down by the town due to fears it was unstable.
“Somebody could have gone in and set fire. When you have a building that’s abandoned it’s just an attraction for vandals.”
Restoring the clock has long been on Hogle’s mind but he admits he kept getting busy with other tasks.
“For years I’ve had comments ‘why don’t you get that running?’ and I said ‘I will, I will’ and I kept putting it off,” said Hogle. “I’m happy to get it done. I think it adds to the building and adds to the town.”