Wiscasset’s historic town clock and tower survived the powerful storm that slammed into the Midcoast region Oct. 30; but high winds gusting at times up to 60 mph left the clock temporarily stopped at 6:25.

On Thursday, Nov. 9, two selectmen inspected the clock and tower on Fort Hill Street with the building’s caretaker Joe Cahoon. Before restarting the 111-year-old clock, Cahoon led Select Board Vice Chairman Ben Rines Jr. and Selectman Bob Blagden on an hour-long tour of the building that included an inspection of the tower and cupola. Steve Christiansen, a Wiscasset public works employee, and this reporter accompanied them.

The prearranged visit was in response to a Sept. 20 report on the clock’s condition given by Rick Balzer of the Freeport-based Balzer Family Clock Works. The building where the clock is located is privately owned and for sale, although the town owns the clock and is responsible for its maintenance and repair.

Cahoon visits the building located a short distance from the post office twice a week. The building’sowner, Maureen Barrett, lives in Henderson, Nevada. Barrett purchased it from the Bradford-Sortwell-Wright American Legion Post 54, which had met there since the 1940s. After remodeling the building, Barrett opened an art gallery and café in 2004. The business, however, has since closed and the property is listed for sale and has been for several years.

Residents of the neighborhood keep an eye on the clock for him, Cahoon added. “When there’s a problem with it keeping the proper time, they contact the town office who then gets in touch with me.”

It took Cahoon just a few minutes to reset the clock’s hands and put its long, swinging pendulum back into motion. The clock is self-winding; a weight that drives its gears slowly drops until it reaches a point near the floor where it trips an electric motor which turns on, returning the weight to its top.

Cahoon suspected high winds from the storm had probably caused the clock to stop running. Since it was reset last Thursday, it’s been keeping the correct time right to the minute.

Along with looking over the clock and its maintenance log, Rines, Blagden and Christiansen took turns climbing up into a small loft beneath the cupola. Cahoon said after a rain storm he frequently finds standing water inside the belfry, which he suspects is coming from a leak within the cupola. Blagden said several support beams appeared to be dry-rotted but he thought the repairs could be done from inside it.

Afterwards Rines told the newspaper, the select board will discuss the tower at a future select board meeting.  “My hope is the town would raise whatever funds are needed and make the repairs.” Voters raised $4,000 for repairs to the town clock in June, but there was some question as to whether or not these monies could be used on the tower.

Reached on Monday, Nov. 13, Town Manager Marian Anderson said she’s awaiting a report on the tower’s condition from a structural engineering firm. The last structural analysis of the tower was carried out by Lincoln-Caswell Engineers of Brunswick 32 years ago. The report noted the landmark steeple is made up of “three distinct sections – a 15-foot tall octagonal cupola, a 16-foot tall clock tower and 13-foot tower base.”

Christiansen recalled the cupola was removed and repaired when the clock was restored in 1993. “The cupola’s roof was re-coppered and its windows enclosed to keep the elements and pigeons out of it,” he said.

That same year Balzer Clock Works carried out an $18,000 restoration of the clock. Before it was returned to the tower, it was displayed in the hearing room of the town office and a picture of it appeared on that year’s town report. Selectmen have continued to have the Balzer company periodically inspect the clock. The most recent inspection carried out several months ago prompted Rines and Blagdon to have a look inside the tower.

The clock manufactured by E. Howard Clock Co. of Boston has tolled the hour above Maine’s Prettiest Village since 1907. The Wiscasset Newspaper has used a picture of it on its flag for years.

The arrangement of the town owning the clock but not the building beneath it is unusual – but has lasted more than 100 years. The two-story wood building was erected (minus the clock) in 1818 as a house of worship, Episcopal first, later Methodist. In 1944, it became home to Post 54. The deed shows the Legion paid $1,000 for the property.

Along with the cupola, the exterior of the tower and the four clock faces need attention as well. The one facing Fort Hill Street needs a minor repair; two winters ago, a piece of its molding broke off and fell to the street below. This same clock face bears the name W.H. Clark, the man who gave the town the clock.

In 1906, Captain William Henry Clark, a veteran of the Civil War, bought the clock for $650 with the sole intent of giving it to Wiscasset.

Christiansen, a descendant of Clark, said it was offered on the conditions it be placed where Clark could see it from his home and be “cared for, kept in good running order and insured by the town of Wiscasset.”

Townspeople accepted the clock on those terms at the March 1907 annual town meeting.