LEXINGTON, Ky. - It once glowed with neon lights, sat on a cast iron column, and even had a pair of 3D eye glasses. The Skuller’s street clock on the corner of Main Street and Limestone in downtown Lexington has been in need of major repair for decades.
Now more than 100 years after it was erected by the Skuller family outside their jewelry store, the timepiece will soon undergo a complete restoration.
“It’s going to not only be made structurally sound again but it’s going to have missing parts re-fabricated and put back with the clock. The neon lettering that says ‘Skuller’s’ across the top will be redone and in place,” says Bettie Kerr, director of the Lexington Division of Historic Preservation.
Thanks to a two-year private fundraising campaign by the Lexington Historic Preservation Commission, a Cincinnati-based company can start making repairs. Cost to repair the historic clock is $25,000.
The 14-foot tall Skuller's clock was manufactured by the Brown Street Clock Company and erected around 1911. It was heavily damaged in a 1974 storm and was taken down in 2010 during a downtown streetscape project.
Kerr says street clocks used to be a staple of urban communities.
“We’ve had people comment to us, ‘Oh I used to always watch that clock to catch the bus that came nearby where the clock sat.’ They were kind of icons in the downtown areas.”
Officials hope to rededicate the clock sometime this fall.
