Clock Tower Measured Days and Years For Marion

 I have made a couple of posts in the past about the old Clock and Bell Tower on the old Marion Jr. High building located on College Street, I seemed to have a fascination for the old structure and it haunts me every time I see it.  I feel I must carry on its history as long as it hangs on, literally hangs on to the top of the building. 

I can't help but look at it every time I am on College Street and think about the history of this once proud clock and bell tower.  There is no sign now of the old clock, because its Roman numerals and arms of  the clock have been lost to time, only the aging wooden tower once home to the 1895 clock is left, and with its present condition, it will soon disappear from sight.

 

It's history began with the new Grade and High School building that was built in 1895.  As the building was almost completed and the tower that was to be the final step in it's completion, some enterprising spirits conceived the idea of putting in a clock, and in a few days a big $600 clock and bell  was installed in the tower, it will tell and toll of the time, and as it measures off the days and years of the people of Marion.

 

 

The clock and bell tolled out the time and called the children to school each day in this building for 43 years and by then the school had become to small to hold all the students so in 1938 a new school was decided to be built.  The new brick structure would be part of the work of the New Deal, the Works Progress Administration (WPA). The new school was completed in 1938-1940 and the first graduating class was in 1941.  The clock and bell from the 1895 building was saved and placed in the new structure.

The clock ticked and the bell tolled until about 1966 and it became beyond repair and some of the parts on the outside were lost and it wasn't able to rewind the time piece so it sat idle for the rest of it's life.

In August of 1981 this school was closed and students transferred to the new Crittenden County Elementary School on Autumn Lane.

Today,  November 2023, only the old wooden structure that held the clock and bells has just about lost it's battle to time and looks like it will soon be gone.