INDIANAPOLIS (WTHR) - An Indianapolis icon is getting a much-needed fix - and you're invited to the ceremonial restart of the L.S. Ayres clock this Sunday!
Indiana Landmarks raised $60,000 to restore the 80-year-old clock to its former glory. Nearly 350 people donated to a GoFundMe campaign to get the famous clock ticking again.
On Sunday, November 20th at noon, you can pick up a commemorative postcard and get the chance to be included in a photo shoot for the National Trust's THIS PLACE MATTERS campaign. Just meet under the clock at Meridian and Washington Streets in downtown Indianapolis! (We suspect you might have some company.)
Indiana Landmarks explains that Vonnegut and Bohn designed the 1905 Ayres department store, and in 1936 Arthur Bohn designed the bronze clock. Situated 29 feet above the sidewalk, the eight-foot tall, five-ton clock gave passersby the time from all four directions — when it worked.
Indiana Landmarks was working on a deadline: they wanted the repairs complete before the bronze cherub comes to perch on the clock on Thanksgiving eve — an annual holiday tradition since 1947. The campaign was launched Oct. 5 and before the month was out, they'd surpassed their original $20,000 goal to reach $60,000.
The clock repair by Smith’s Bell and Clock Company will cost around $14,000, including four new faces that replicate the 1936 originals, and repair of the electrical system that lights the faces from within.
A worker discovered an unsecured nine-inch bronze detail on the clock that could have fallen on a pedestrian's head, so the organization will spend around $20,000 to clean and repair the bronze case, and enlarge the maintenance fund to ensure both annual clock cleaning and repair and periodic cleaning and conservation of the bronze case and cherub.
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