Clock Tower

Westminster's mayor and council agreed last night to spend $42,790 to rehabilitate the city's historic clock tower atop the old Main Street firehouse. The council awarded a contract to an Ohio steeplejack company to renovate the clock tower. Built in 1896, the buff-colored brick tower needs restoration to its woodwork and windows as well as updated lighting. Work will begin shortly and should be complete within several weeks. The council, which had budgeted $25,000 for the project, agreed to shift $20,000 in unused funds from the City Park retaining wall project to cover the additional cost of the renovations.

I totally agree with Jill Pratt of the McCormick & Co. that the new Old Bay banner should not be taken down after a year but remain as a permanent fixture of the city ("Table talk: Old Bay goes big in Baltimore," June 12). I'm certain it will become an icon associated with Baltimore, as are the Bromo Seltzer clock tower, the George Washington monument and the Domino Sugar sign. This will turn out to be an asset for Baltimore and a positive contribution to the city's national image.

Brothers David M. and Robert Max, who own two office buildings in downtown Westminster, want to buy the city volunteer fire company's historic fire hall at 66 E. Main St.Fire company officials say they are eager to sell the building, priced at $750,000. The three-story domed structure has been the firefighters' base for 100 years but is too small to house modern firefighting equipment.Firefighters say Main Street traffic makes it difficult to get fire equipment onto the street.Westminster city government is not involved in the negotiations, which began about two months ago, but officials want to ensure that the buyer will preserve the century-old clock tower that has become a landmark and that appears on city logos.

Possibly the only thing more disturbing than the realization that someone was on campus at a school in Harford County this week making threats to kill people is the reaction of the school and its public safety component. On Monday morning, the administration at Harford Community College decided not to immediately alert the campus about what police would later describe as a "homicidal/suicidal" person wandering the campus. At around 10:30 a.m., a student was heard making "dangerous threats" near the library on the campus east of Bel Air. He was taken into custody about 50 minutes later and is not expected to be charged.

Soaring 92 feet above Main Street, the clock tower atop Westminster Fire Hall has come to be more than just a perch for a Seth-Thomas timepiece and home to a bell that once summoned volunteer firefighters to duty. "It's been a symbol of the city of Westminster for a long time," said Suzanne P. Albert, a Westminster City Council member who launched a successful campaign to save the firehouse's bell when the Fire Department moved to its new building on John Street in 1997. But since its construction in 1896, the tower, with its distinctive octagonal curved roof, has become weathered and worn.

Four years and $11 million later, Stephens Hall, the distinctive building that defines Towson State University, is open again for academic business. This majestic, 91,000-square-foot structure, complete with clock tower and an ornate, English manor architectural style, sits majestically on a hill overlooking York Road. For countless motorists and alumni, Stephens Hall is Towson State.But the 1915 edifice was sadly in need of repair and modernization. An entire class of TSU students never set foot in the massive hall during their undergraduate years.

I totally agree with Jill Pratt of the McCormick & Co. that the new Old Bay banner should not be taken down after a year but remain as a permanent fixture of the city ("Table talk: Old Bay goes big in Baltimore," June 12). I'm certain it will become an icon associated with Baltimore, as are the Bromo Seltzer clock tower, the George Washington monument and the Domino Sugar sign. This will turn out to be an asset for Baltimore and a positive contribution to the city's national image.

ANNAPOLIS CITY planners have already begun to reap rewards from their decision to build a nearly $8 million traffic circle at West Street and Taylor Avenue.The roundabout, nearing completion ahead of schedule, is more than a solution to traffic congestion in the West Street corridor. It is becoming a stimulant for the kind of development that can revitalize an area.Annapolis-based developer Jerome J. Parks' proposal to build a $101 million complex adjacent to the still-unnamed circle could be a major boon in the city's quest to revive this stretch.

Time no longer stands still on York Road. Elected officials gathered in a Northeast Baltimore parking lot yesterday to christen the new Curran Memorial Clock Tower - an iconic clock in Govans that has been stuck at 3 o'clock for years. "Our city's working again. And this corner, and the renewal of this corner, is a symbol of that," said Gov. Martin O'Malley, who is married to District Judge Catherine Curran O'Malley. "The people of our district knew they could always turn to a Curran when they were hurting."

Get up and get funky.Landmark plans call for Baltimore's 300-foot Bromo Selt-zer clock tower to be converted to 12 panoramified apartments, city housing officials said this past week. Among other amenities, future residents would be able to watch the Orioles' bullpen collapse without paying to see it happen.Perhaps this novel redevelopment notion for the clock tower -- Baltimore's downtown lighthouse -- will open the field for similar projects. Why should a city's landmarks be structures merely to leer at, or to list in architecture guides?

Starting at sunset Saturday, artist Kelley Bell will place Baltimore's venerable landmark Bromo Seltzer Tower at the exact center of the solar system. For at least the next five weeks, pedestrians and motorists will view the four faces of the clock tower alight with Bell's animations every day between sunset and sunrise. The design she's chosen humorously plays off Baltimoreans' affection for the 1911 tower by making the focal point for the sun, moon, planets and stars. "The Bromo Seltzer Tower fills a unique role in this city," says Joe Wall, the tower's facilities manager, who dreamed up the idea of animating the 24-foot-in-diameter clock faces.

The problem: A traffic signal in Waverly is too brief to let farmers' market patrons leave a clogged parking lot. The backstory: Lorraine Tunis Doo had plenty of time to notice the problem. She and her sister-in-law sat in traffic more than 15 minutes trying to leave the parking lot of the Waverly Farmers' Market. The market is held Saturday mornings in a municipal parking lot, and drivers exit on Barclay Street, near a complicated intersection where 33rd Street, University Parkway, Merryman Lane and Barclay meet.

Time no longer stands still on York Road. Elected officials gathered in a Northeast Baltimore parking lot yesterday to christen the new Curran Memorial Clock Tower - an iconic clock in Govans that has been stuck at 3 o'clock for years. "Our city's working again. And this corner, and the renewal of this corner, is a symbol of that," said Gov. Martin O'Malley, who is married to District Judge Catherine Curran O'Malley. "The people of our district knew they could always turn to a Curran when they were hurting."

Religious and political leaders have called for the park at the site of old Memorial Stadium to be used for thanksgiving and meditation. Now, after a ceremony yesterday honoring the patriarch of one of the city's best-known political families, those leaders are adding one more use: remembrance. City and state officials unveiled the new Curran Family Bell Tower - dedicated to the late City Councilman J. Joseph Curran Sr., the father of former Maryland Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr. and the grandfather of District Judge Catherine Curran O'Malley, wife of Gov. Martin O'Malley.

THE PROBLEM -- A clock and carillon bells atop a memorial tower near York Road and Woodbourne Avenue in Govans have not worked for many years. THE BACKSTORY -- Peg Massey of North Baltimore wrote Watchdog asking about the "lovely tower with bells & a clock in the center." She said the bells haven't rung and the clock hands haven't moved past 3 o'clock in many years. "Perhaps," she wrote, "if it were put into working order it would be more meaningful to the neighbors." Massey's question takes the Watchdog down memory lane.

It chimed about 13 times at 9 a.m. as a crew worked on Westminster's 19th-century Main Street clock, but by Monday evening the landmark appeared to be keeping time again. The clock, in the historic firehouse tower downtown, started chiming about a half-hour fast about two weeks ago. That's when residents started calling city officials. So city workers began working last week to fix the Seth Thomas clock, which is more than 100 years old. Jeff Glass, the city's assistant director of public works for streets and utilities, said he had about 10 calls in less than a week.

When light rail comes to Ferndale, residents hope passengers will take note of their town and its railroad roots.For the past several years, community leaders have worked toward that end, helping the Mass Transit Administration (MTA) distinguish the North County community's rail station from others along the six-mile southern portion of the line.With the station on Baltimore-Annapolis Boulevard just months from completion and rail service expected to start in July, the community's efforts have begun to take shape, from the hipped roof on the shelter to the brick clock tower and gray and black color scheme.

It chimed about 13 times at 9 a.m. as a crew worked on Westminster's 19th-century Main Street clock, but by Monday evening the landmark appeared to be keeping time again. The clock, in the historic firehouse tower downtown, started chiming about a half-hour fast about two weeks ago. That's when residents started calling city officials. So city workers began working last week to fix the Seth Thomas clock, which is more than 100 years old. Jeff Glass, the city's assistant director of public works for streets and utilities, said he had about 10 calls in less than a week.

PASO ROBLES, Calif. - Though Monday's earthquake was felt from Los Angeles to San Francisco, its destructive epicenter was here in this small central California city where two women died, nearly 50 buildings were damaged, sulfur springs bubbled through the streets and a historic clock tower crumbled to the ground. The recovery of property continued yesterday in the historic downtown decorated in ribbon and holiday lights. And as workers sifted through the debris, residents were looking for something good to hold on to after the calamity that struck at the corner of Park and 12th streets.

PASO ROBLES, Calif. - A deadly magnitude 6.5 earthquake shuddered through California's central coast yesterday morning, crumpling a historic building in Paso Robles and causing the deaths of at least two people. The 20- to 30-second temblor - the strongest in the area's modern history - smashed shop windows, caused fires and interrupted power through parts of San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties. The earthquake rocked the federal courthouse in San Francisco, 165 miles to the northwest of the epicenter, and sent the building's upper floors swaying for about 30 seconds.