Museum raises enough to restore clock and bell

Greg Krueger, curator of the Lynchburg Museum System, cleans grime and dirt buildup off the old court house clock that was originally purchased by St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in 1835.

By: Alicia Petska | The News & Advance
Published: July 23, 2009

The Lynchburg Museum has successfully raised enough money to restore its old clock and bell back to working condition — and it didn’t even take 3,000 hours to do it.

On Wednesday, museum supporters announced they’ve met their fundraising goal just a scant four months — or roughly 2,952 hours — after starting the campaign.

“The amount of support we’ve received has been a wonderful surprise,” said Rob Craighill, board chairman for the Lynchburg Museum Foundation. “The community has really gotten behind this. That is what’s neat. It’s the citizens who have done this.”

Craighill said more than 160 contributions were made to the clock-and-bell campaign. Individual donations ranged from as much as $1,000 to as little as 30 cents, he said.

The campaign was put over the top Wednesday morning with help from the Lynchburg Historical Foundation and Lynch’s Landing.

The historical foundation, an early partner in the effort, presented the museum with a check for $3,000 during a brief ceremony on the museum steps. Lynch’s Landing, a downtown revitalization organization, presented another check for $2,216, pushing the campaign past its goal of $20,000.

“We wanted to help retain this piece of history. This clock is how downtown Lynchburg used to mark the hours,” noted Lynch’s Landing director Angela Hamilton, describing the museum itself as an “integral” part of downtown.

The clock and bell that reside in the portico of the museum on Court Street date back to 1835. The mechanism faithfully kept time and rang out over downtown every hour until the museum closed in 2000 following the partial collapse of its ceiling.

By the time the museum reopened in 2008 following an extensive renovation, it no longer had any employees who knew how to operate the antiquated clock works.

In late March, the museum foundation and historical foundation partnered to raise $20,000 to refurbish the apparatus and install a modern clock mechanism.

Officials now anticipate that project, which will be completely funded by donations, will be finished by the end of this year. The old clockworks were removed last week and are currently being cleaned for future display.

Doug Harvey, director of the Lynchburg Museum, said they were “thrilled” the project is moving forward and thanked the community for its support.

“The people of Lynchburg are serious about their history,” he said.