The time changed last Sunday and we fell back an hour. This past week I took a stroll along the bike trail that goes along the Great Miami River past Carillon Park and Dayton's most famous timekeeper, the Callahan Building clock.
This clock was perched atop Dayton's first skyscraper, the Callahan Building. It started ticking in the late 1800s, becoming the heartbeat of the city skyline. The Callahan Building was demolished in 1978. I remember driving past the demolition and it was sad to see this beautiful structure knocked down to a pile of rubble. It was replaced by a building designed by I.M. Pei (best known for the glass pyramid he designed for the Louvre). It's now a cool, modern building and it has a "Pei pyramid" on its top but but there's something about old architecture that gives a city its character. And right now the building is sitting empty. The clock moved to the Reynolds & Reynolds building where it was a prominent sight to commuters traveling on I-75 until 2006. R&R moved its headquarters and the clock made its final move to Carillon Historical Park, where it stayed in storage for 12 years.
The Brethen Foundation presented a $500,000 gift to Carillon Park to construct a tower to "lift the historic Callahan Clock into the air and return this well-known landmark to Dayton's skyline." (Dayton Daily News, Oct. 10, 2018). In 2018 the clock became an anchor on the museums's 65-acre park and now sits on the appropriately named Brethen Tower.
I enlarged the photo to get a better look at the clock. It is lovely and deserves to be seen.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad it was preserved and now has a permanent home.
DeleteGlad the clock has been preserved. Sadly many downtown buildings are empty.
ReplyDeleteDayton is known for destroying its history. The urban renewal in the 60s really did not work for the better.
DeleteThat's a very fine clock; it's wonderful that it has been preserved. Too many pieces of history are lost.
ReplyDeleteIt took a while for it to find its permanent home but so glad it did!
DeleteWonderful that that clock has finally found it's place. We all need to know what time it is.
ReplyDeleteNow the question will be if people can read the time on the clock face. In this age of technology , reading analog clocks is becoming a lost skill.
ReplyDelete