Spartanburg City Meeting on Town Clock History and Future (2025-10-03)
Spartanburg City Meeting on Town Clock History and Future (2025-10-03)
The meeting featured a detailed presentation by a city official (likely from the city administration) covering the 144-year history of Spartanburg's town clock, its relationship to local government buildings, and the rationale for relocating the clock tower to the new joint city-county government complex. The speaker also addressed applicability of the South Carolina Heritage Act to the clock tower and outlined the broader downtown redevelopment context, including over $300 million in private investment.
Historical Context
- 1881: The town clock was first purchased and installed as part of the new opera house (seat of local government). The city charter was approved that same year.
- 1907: The clock was moved to the courthouse on Magnolia Street, where it remained until 1958.
- 1958: The clock and bell were put into storage after the county courthouse was replaced without a clock tower element.
- 1979: The clock and bell were restored and placed in a new freestanding clock tower at the intersection of Main and Liberty (Liberty Square) as part of the Main Street Pedestrian Mall. The project was spearheaded by the Spartanburg Bicentennial Committee under former Mayor Stoddard. The speaker noted that the primary motivation was to maintain community connection to downtown amid the opening of Westgate Mall and white flight.
- 1989: The clock tower was moved to its current location on a 6,500‑square‑foot landscape island after the pedestrian mall was reopened to traffic.
- 2020: The tower stood as shown in a recent photo.
- 2025: Construction began on a new local government building featuring a new, taller clock tower (approximately 130 feet tall, compared to the existing 70‑foot tower).
Discussion Items
- Preservation and relocation: The speaker argued that the clock tower has historically been an architectural feature of government buildings for over 60% of its 124‑year existence, and that moving it to the new complex continues that tradition. He emphasized that the historic clockworks and bell would be made publicly accessible on the ground floor, allowing closer interaction.
- South Carolina Heritage Act: The speaker examined whether the clock tower qualifies as a revolutionary war monument under the Act (which restricts relocation of certain monuments). He noted that the clock tower’s plaques contain no mention of war, revolution, or soldiers; the only reference to the bicentennial is a single sentence in a 740‑word essay. He argued that the bicentennial committee’s other projects (e.g., restoration of Saye House, Magnolia Street Cemetery) also lack revolutionary war ties, so applying the Act to the clock tower would be unreasonable. The city intends to follow the law but does not believe the Act applies.
- New Main Street development: The speaker presented plans for the Herald Journal block, including a hotel, office buildings, retail, and event spaces. He highlighted that this project, along with the new baseball stadium and other developments, represents the two largest capital investments in city history. The realignment of Main Street to its historic form (removing the “wiggle” in the road) is necessary to achieve a cohesive street edge and is not simply a developer’s preference but a community aspiration. Over 1,000 construction workers are expected on site over the next two years.
Key Outcomes
- The speaker recommended that the clock tower be returned to its historic role as an architectural feature of the seat of local government, with the bell and clockworks restored and made publicly accessible in the new building.
- No formal vote or decision was recorded in the transcript; the presentation appeared to be informational or for council consideration.
- The speaker acknowledged that individuals whose names appear on plaques on the existing tower may experience a sense of loss, but urged the community to focus on the long‐term benefit to downtown Spartanburg.
Meeting Transcript
So let's dive into the the history of the town clock and the relevant context. Start the timeline at the first time this town had a clock. 1881, the clock was purchased and installed as a prominent architectural feature of a new local government building. 1881 is also the year that the city charter was approved by the state government. And so some point to that day is the is the day as the year Spartanburg was established as a as a city or town. And at that time, the city leadership built what was known as the opera house on Main Street. The seat of local local government in the community, and that building was the pride of the community. And you see its most prominent architectural feature was the tower that contained the clock and the bell that we'll talk about more tonight. That sat in place 26 years. In 1907, the clock moved and was installed as a prominent architectural feature of a new local government building. At that time, it was this courthouse on Magnolia Street. You see different architectural style, similar composition, in that there were uh several floors of uh of various spaces, and then a signature element architecturally that included the clock uh the town clock there. So a lot of similar similarities between those two structures, but they served different generations. So that uh clock was in the courthouse from 1907 to 1958, and in 1958, the clock was put in storage uh and a decision was made that there wouldn't be a clock tower element in the new county courthouse, what was then the new county courthouse. Obviously, it's no longer the new county courthouse because it was demolished within the last uh uh handful of years to make way for the current county courthouse. Uh so that um so at 1958, they were the the clock uh and the bell were moved into the basement and sat in storage for 20 years in 1979. The clock and the bell were restored, and a new uh what we now know as the clock tower. New tower uh tower was erected at the intersection of Maine and Liberty. Uh that uh Main and Liberty was as was referenced by common commenter tonight, uh part of the Main Street Mall, Main Street Pedestrian Mall. That uh that intersection was known as Liberty Square. Um my name's not in the clock. Uh I moved to Spartanburg as a boy in 1983. But I made it in time to shop on Main Street and see the clock tower at Liberty Square at that intersection. Um remember its placement there, literally in the center of that intersection. There was some there were some remarkably positive things about that effort. Uh Mayor Stoddard, former then former Mayor Stoddard, uh chaired the bicentennial committee, and I'll certainly be talking more about that in the next few minutes. Um they uh identified a number of uh things and activities, but uh committee was appointed to explore uh restoring the the clock and the bell. Um that committee went out uh to engage a number of stakeholders and to and to get some support and I'll and I'll comment on that in just a minute. But before I do, I wanted to remind folks here uh what the context was in that period of the mid-70s in Spartanburg. These are not my opinions, these are facts. Westgate Mall had just opened. That was all the buzz. Right. Also, at the same time, there was a substantial increase in what some social scientists call white flight, but the the residential relocation from the aging housing stock in the city to newer neighborhoods further out. That was a predominant condition. So the folks that were sitting in your shoes at that time had naturally a great deal of angst about the core of downtown. That was that had to be the thing that kept them up at night staring at the ceiling. Is they knew the retailers were leaving or had left, and they knew that there were socioeconomic and uh uh factors that were pulling the center of activity to the commercial nodes on the east side and the west side and in other places in Spartanburg County, that they had every reason to be concerned that extraordinary steps needed to be taken to solidify a sense of connection between the next generation and downtown Spartanburg. And I believe that their engagement of some 20,000 uh residents in uh building the clock tower was wonderful and brilliant. We have seen evidence of folks saying that that is something they did they have they recall a connection to. So at the same set of years that they went from shopping for their back to school clothes in downtown to shopping for their back to school clothes out at the mall or at Hillcrest, this was one effort that solidified connection. Why was that important? It was important because downtowns across America work because they efficiently create uh opportunity for folks at all income levels and they create successive opportunities for subsequent generations. So I suspect that the city leadership at that time was very concerned about losing their downtown. And I think that was their principal motivation. And frankly, I think it's much more significant uh motivation than putting names on plaques and uh raising the funds. If you look back at the funds that were raised, you'll find that they are a small fraction of what it cost to build the clock tower. I'm not suggesting that that's insignificant. I'm a parent. I have kids, and I know when they go into their own pockets to invest in things, the dollar amount doesn't matter.
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