City Hall Clock Tower

New Bern City Hall Clock Tower - Today

Photo courtesy of National Archives
City Hall as Post Office,Court & Custom House

The City Hall Clock Tower is a prominent landmark for downtown New Bern that can be seen for miles. It serves as the City’s unofficial timepiece, by night illuminated by red light bulbs mounted on each hand and white bulbs on each hour.

Many are not aware City Hall was constructed in 1895-97 to house the post office, Court and Custom House operations without a tower or clock.

In Peter Sandbeck’s book, The Historic Architecture of New Bern and Craven County, North Carolina, the US Treasury Department built the building at a cost of $68,746.60. Although the City fathers asked for a clock of some sort to be added, after the original plans had been finalized, no action was taken on the request until 1906  when tentative plans were made to install a single-faced clock in the south gable. Numerous citizens complained such a clock would not be visible from most of the town that led to construction of a small rooftop clock tower housing a four-faced clock in 1907.  Citizens again complained that this first clock was too small to be seen two blocks away. In 1908, Congressman Charles R. Thomas of New Bern obtained an appropriation to construct a new more prominent tower and clock. In 1909, the King Lumber Company of Charlottesville, VA was  awarded the contract to construct  the present tower and install the Seth Thomas illuminated four-faced clock according to designs prepared by Treasury Department architect James Know Taylor. The tower and installation was completed in 1911.

 

In 1935, the City purchased the building and it renovated it for use as the city’s municipal center.  The interior of the building was renovated in the early 1990’s.  Although the clock is still a prominent landmark, the large Seth Thomas mechanism was replaced with an electric motor in 1991. The historic clock mechanism’s removal from the City Hall Clock Tower and its  new lease in life was posted in a previous blog.

Tell us what you think.

Susan Moffat Thomas

Executive Director