Location: Administration Building, 510 Main Street
Cost: Unknown
Unveiled: September 16, 1974
When Winnipeg's "Gingerbread" City Hall was built in 1896, the design called for a large, four-faced clock in its tower. The timepiece was cut due to budget constraints.
In 1902, the city set aside $2,500 for a clock and Norman Andrew of Andrew and Co. watchmakers and jewellers in the McIntyre Block on Main Street won the contract to procure and install it.
The clock chosen by Andrew was built by the Seth-Thomas Clock Company of Connecticut, U.S.A.. It cost $1,914 but modifications made to the clock tower to hold it brought the total price of the project to around $3,000.
The four dials were seven feet in diameter and illuminated using electric lights and the counterweights needed to keep the pendulum swinging weighed over 1,000 pounds. Initially, the clock had to be wound by hand weekly though in later decades an electric winding mechanism was added.
Andrew and his men installed the clock in May 1903 and it was officially unveiled by Mayor John Arbuthnot at noon on Victoria Day.
May 26, 1903, Winnipeg Free Press
The city's two main daily newspapers were split on the clock.
A Tribune editorial said, "... $2,500 is a large sum to spend in adornment. If we have that sum to spend on decorative art it can be spent to much more advantage in other way." The Free Press, on the other hand, felt that the clock "... gives an appearance of completeness to the tower which was not had before; and the feeling of most citizens is one of wonder that this want was not supplied long ago."
The clock was initially looked after by Norman Andrew and his staff. The longest-serving unofficial clock caretaker was William T. "Bill" Muirhead, a watchmaker at Dudley's Jewellers who was called on to maintain it from the late 1920s until at least 1950.
July 5, 1949, Winnipeg Tribune
The clock was given its annual tune-up by Muirhead in the fall of 1948 which consisted of a basic cleaning and greasing of its components. When spring came, it began suffering from several mechanical issues.
Various horologists were invited to come examine the clock and give their opinions. The city engineer told city council at its July meeting to be prepared for the news that it might not be repairable. In the end, it appears that decades of coal soot, grime and the elements had seized up the parts of the deep, inner workings of the clock and it needed a major overhaul.
The clock survived and continued to serve until the old city hall was torn down in 1961. Its works were put into deep storage and parts of it it were unveiled in the clock tower in Edmonton Court at Portage Place when it opened in 1987.
June 29, 1961, Winnipeg Tribune
When a design was chosen for Winnipeg's new civic centre complex there was no provision made for a clock and it opened in 1964 without one.
Fast forward to 1974, and Mayor Juba invited Molson Companies Ltd. to hold its annual board meeting in the city to help celebrate its centennial year.
At the time, Molson's consisted of at least ten subsidiaries with its brewing division making up just 48 percent of its revenues. Several of those companies, (Molson’s Manitoba Brewery Ltd., Beaver Lumber; Willson’s Stationers; and Seaway-Midwest Ltd.), were headquartered in Winnipeg making it a major employer of over 1,000 people.
(Fun fact: the brewery was a relative latecomer to Winnipeg. It didn't enter the local market until 1960 when it purchased Fort Garry Brewery.)
The Molson board and executive team did not come to Winnipeg empty handed. To help celebrate the city's centennial it donated a new city clock.
After the board meeting, which was held in the city hall chambers on September 17, 1974, everyone went out to the courtyard where the clock was officially presented to Mayor Juba by Molson board president D. G. Willmot. Around 600 helium-filled balloons were released as part of the event.
The clock measures 12 feet square and is ten inches thick. It was constructed in Winnipeg by the Claude Neon Company.
Time stood still in late 2009 when the clock's internal mechanism failed. It was removed in February 2010 for a $26,000 refurbishment and was reinstalled in November.
In 2012, problems again surfaced when it appeared that the face of the clock was coming apart at the seam causing the hands to rub against it.
The clock again stopped working in 2019. This time, it was blamed on the fact that the hands had become loose from the clock mechanism. The problem was fixed and a new motor and LED bulbs were installed.
City Clock Turns 50 Free Press Community Review
510 Main Street Winnipeg Architecture Foundation
Winnipeg Civic Centre 1964 - 2014 Exhibit Winnipeg Architecture Foundation
Also, read about the City Bell which is now on Selkirk Avenue.
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