Downtown Columbus history: Jewelers’ clocks adorned sidewalks

With Daylight Saving Time beginning today, we must remember to move our clocks forward one hour. But why not briefly turn the hands of time back, as well — to the years when Downtown Columbus jewelers tended to their classic sidewalk clocks. 

Jewelers’ clocks added charm to Downtown streets and were erected in business districts in many cities, from the late 1800s to the 1940s or so. A few of these clocks remain, but typically need restoration to work properly. Also known as “street clocks” or “post clocks,” they originally were wound by hand. Later, electric timekeeping mechanisms could be controlled from inside the stores.

The clocks were meant to display the authoritative time by which people Downtown could set their watches. They were landmarks and good advertising for the businesses, and were also seen in front of banks and hotels. Over the decades, though, some were destroyed in car accidents or removed during renovation or construction. 

As the city’s 2012 Bicentennial was approaching, the Downtown Residents’ Association of Columbus marked the occasion by raising funds toward the restoration of two such timepieces. The results of the “Saving Time for the Future” campaign can be seen with restored clocks at 30 N. High St. (at Lynn Alley) and at 21 E. Gay St. (That clock took a ride through time, starting at a Gay Street jeweler, to the Neil House hotel, to COSI, and now back home on Gay Street). Those two clocks are now owned by the city of Columbus. 

Contributor Linda Deitch was a Dispatch librarian for 25 years.