Philadelphia

The bank on the corner has changed hands three times. The druggist sold out to CVS last year. The farm down the way is now a subdivision. But at least the old town clock is marking the passage of time, just as it has been doing for the past century.

Or has it?

In a growing number of American places, the town clock is barely as old as the Starbucks and about as unique. In fact, the clock is on its way to becoming the new statue of a Founding Father or heroic military leader – as ubiquitous, nearly, as these flagpole-flanked monuments, a modern urban-planning touchstone. “A clock has become the most recent object being used to say, ‘you are there,’ ” says Charles Guttenplan of Waetzman Planning Group in Bryn Mawr, Pa.

“Vintage” town clocks are one of the most popular fads in public planning, especially in streetscaping projects aimed at spiffing up fraying business districts. It’s not that folks are suddenly afraid of being tardy. After all, wristwatches, cellphones, and even car radios make the town clock superfluous. Today’s clock tells you not that you’re running late, but that you have already arrived – that you’ve come to a place with a bit of tradition, even elegance, in what might otherwise be another boring stretch of roadway. “A clock has become one way of creating a focal point, an identity,” says Mr. Guttenplan, whose projects often include clocks.

Though some vintage town clocks are the real McCoy, most are faux-old. Some are replacements for originals that may have been mangled by the occasional wayward truck, but most of the hundreds that are installed in towns across the US every year are new.

Among the most popular street clocks sold today are those modeled after Seth Thomas and H. Howard classics, which began to fall out of fashion in the 1950s after their heyday a century ago. Their comeback started in the 1980s when public planners took on the challenge of the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s drive to bring a Main Street feel to deteriorating commercial districts. Fueled by grants from all levels of government, often supplemented by private investment, the now-common streetscape comprises miniparks, sleeker signage, and prettified parking. And where a George Washington statue might once have sufficed as focal point, citizens want something new – um, old – to establish that theirs is a place with a history, says Ronald Fleming of the Townscape Institute, a public-planning organization in Cambridge, Mass. The town clock is “a little flourish, a little exclamation point,” he says.

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Ranging from a modest 10 feet to a striking 20 feet tall, post or “street” clocks typically come in black or green cast aluminum. They are often decorated with filigree, scrolling, or gold-tooling, and usually have the town name spelled out in decorative letters. Optional chimes play anything from holiday music to the high school’s fight song. According to Jeannie Porter of the Verdin Co., which manufactures bells and clocks, when the town of Ramapo, N.Y., recently ordered seven clocks from her company, they had them programmed to play a greeting from the mayor during the morning and evening rush hours.

“Most places, as they begin to think of rejuvenation, try to think of some kind of ‘front door’ to the community,” says James Hartling, a planner with Urban Partners, a Philadelphia-based firm. The clocks tend to be installed in important places: in front of a significant public building, or at a prime intersection or traffic circle. But private businesses sometimes buy their own. Traditionally a status symbol anchored in front of jewelry shops, their appeal has now spread to golf clubs, funeral homes, universities, and shopping centers looking to present a “ye olde” feel. The clocks cost anywhere from $8,000 to $10,000 for a small, two-faced model to as much as $60,000 or more for a specially commissioned piece. Most popular are the four-faced models in the $30,000 range.

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