GREAT BARRINGTON — Downtown pedestrians and motorists who really want to know what time it is can relax now. After going into rehab, the Mercer family clock is back in action.
Back in February toward the end of a snowstorm, the iconic timepiece had an encounter with a town sidewalk plow. You can guess which inanimate object emerged victorious.
Jim Mercer, who also owns the building at the corner of Main and Railroad streets closest to the site of the clock, told The Edge the replacement was installed on Friday. Mercer had donated the historic replica clock to the town in 2015.
“It was a complete replacement because when it smashed to the ground, it broke the face on the back of it and the electronics were all screwed up, and the base and everything was damaged,” Mercer said in an interview. “The finial was also broken off.”
Meanwhile, the town’s insurance paid for the replacement. Mercer said he has received lots of feedback from downtown regulars about how pleased they are that the clock is back.
“I’ve gotten a lot of responses and texts and people are glad it’s up,” Mercer added. “We finally have spring and the town is looking better. There’s lots of activity on Railroad Street.”
And the replacement clock didn’t come a moment too soon, as outdoor dining on Railroad Street on Friday and Saturday evenings is slated to restart later this month.
The clock itself looks like an oversized, gold-rimmed pocketwatch, complete with a winding stem on top. The base is black cast-aluminum. The clock has Swiss movement with a satellite-GPS autoset, so that once it is set, it doesn’t have to be reset after power failures or when daylight saving time changes. Fortunately, the electronics inside Mercer’s building that control the clock were not damaged.
The clock also has historical significance. Dating at least back to the 19th century, there was a clock in that location so that people could tell what time the trains arrived and left, Mercer explained. At the top of Railroad Street were both passenger and freight stations, along with bars and hotels.
