It looks like Princeton’s downtown clock, removed during renovations to the Bridge Street Visitors Centre, will find a new home.
At a recent meeting, councillors voted to offer the clock to the Princeton Museum, where it could have a home for all time.
During the same meeting, Coun. Randy McLean, a member of the local Rotary Club, said that group is pursuing fundraising opportunities to hopefully provide a new clock for the municipality’s core.
The clock was originally purchased in 1957 by Hugh Miller’s family as a memorial after he passed away. It was first located in front of the post office.
While regretting the loss of the iconic downtown feature, Princeton Mayor Spencer Coyne said it was obvious the clock was in disrepair and could not be fixed.
The clock hadn’t worked for at least six months before it was carted away and final attempts to restore it were unsuccessful.
“But it was right twice a day.”
A new downtown clock for Princeton will take time
After six decades very little of the clock was original, noted Coyne. The face was replaced and repainted at least once, and the hands, once they deteriorated, were replaced with pieces from old town street signs.
Kim Maynard, president of the Princeton and District Museum, said he was happy to hear the clock will be donated, although when interviewed by the Spotlight he’d not yet been officially informed by the town.
“Checking the time on that old clock was something I always did since I was a young man,” he said. “I would welcome the clock and support the town in installing it on an appropriate spot on museum grounds…I am, of course, only speaking for myself and our board would make the decision.”
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