Street clocks

Decorative street clocks were often placed on sidewalks to attract business, especially jewelry stores. On this page we'll take a look at some of the ornamental clocks that grace the sidewalks of New York City. Many of these clocks still work!

This clock is in front of the Barthman Jewelers store on Broadway at Maiden Lane and was first placed there in 1899. It has been attacked by vandals, been walked on and suffered the risk of canine ejecta for years but it keeps on ticking (with the help of an electric motor.)

As far as I know, it is the only clock embedded ina sidealk on the USA, athough there is another in London.

The beautiful gold street clock in front of the Fifth Avenue Building at Madison Square is in the midst of NYC's toy district. It's been there since 1909.

Bomelstein's Jewelers installed this street clock on Manhattan Avenue in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, decades ago. Bomelstein's is gone, but it should be there indefinitely, having been landmarked by the city.

As of 2001 the clock has been restored and is running again.

Madison Avenue in the 50s

Jamaica Avenue and 160th Street in Jamaica, Queens is the home of this clock. Note its location in front of the old Gertz department store.

Fanciful clock at FAO Schwarz. 5th and 58th in midtown

This former clock on Sutphin Boulevard near the LIRR terminal has not had the same fate as the other Jamaica street clock. Its clock long vanished, it's used by a realtor for makeshift advertising.

Venditti Square clock, Myrtle Avenue, Ridgewood

This clock at Flatbush Avenue and Sixth Avenue in Park Slope stands in view of the Williamsburgh Building, the tallest in Brooklyn and second tallest on Long Island.

Its twin brother, right, is at Flatbush and Eighth in Park Slope.

It's always ten to five on this old street clock on Steinway Street in Astoria, Queens.

This handsome clock was installed in the late 1990s on Bell Boulevard in Bayside Hills, Queens.

Although the store in front of the Steinway clock is now a housewares store, it used to be a jeweler's; many jewelry shops had clocks in front of them for advertising purposes.

The above two scenes show the same block...Third Avenue between 84th and 85th Street. The photo on the left is a modern scene from 1998, and the photo on the right was taken by Lothar Stelter in 1953 and appears in his son Lawrence's excellent book, "By The El", a wonderful collection of picrtures of the old Third Avenue El. The El was torn down in 1955.

Perhaps the only common element in the two photos is the magnificent street clock, known as The Yorkville Clock.. In 1953 it called attention to the pawnshop in front of it which is now a Mickey D's.

This clock recently celebrated its 100th anniversary in style--with a complete restoration! This story from the September 1996 Our Town weekly tells the story:

The 17-foot tall Yorkville Clock is a designated city landmark, and is one of only 9 remaining street clocks in the city.

After a century of New York street life, the clock had reached a perilous state of decay. Last November, it was dismantled and shipped to Utah for a ten-month, $18,000 restoration, paid for mostly by donations from Upper East Side families.

The Yorkville Clock was originally installed in 1898 as an advertisement for a jewelry store in the shadow of the old Third Avenue elevated train.

In 1985, a city employee mistakenly sold the clock as surplus to a Long Island collector. The Koch administration tracked it down and by1989 it was back in service, this time next to a McDonalds. But its troubles were not over.

"When I ran across it, one of its faces was smashed and it was covered with graffiti", said Margot Gayle, the leader of the volunteer group which adopted the clock.

At age 91, Gayle has a career of clock rescue behind her. Back in the 1960s, she organized Greenwich Village residents to save the Jefferson Market clock, and went on to advocate on behalf of clocks from City Hall's cupola clock to the timepiece on Staten Island's Borough Hall.

(Note the picture above was taken before the latest restoration).

Both these clocks are on the upper east side in Yorkville. The one on York Avenue (left) is relatively new while the one outside the Wicked Wolf (right) hasn't seen action for some time.

Here is a brand new example of the genre, at the Tribeca Grand Hotel on 6th Avenue and Church Street.

An abstract clock at Broadway near Lincoln Center.

I've pretty much left clocks that are mounted on the sides of buildings off this page (mainly because there are so many!) but this one on Broadway and Chambers deserves special note.

It's the only remaining vestige of the old New York Sun newspaper. (A new Sun rose on April 16, 2002).

Many people have heard about the old "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus" editorial by Francis P. Church, which appeared in the pages of The Sun in December 1897.

This part of Manhattan used to be a center of the newspaper industry with most papers (NYC used to have as many as twelve dailies) centered on Park Row across City Hall Park.

This magnificent cast iron clock on Duane Street off West Broadway cries out for acknowledgement. Look at that detail! However, I can't make out the writing above the clock: it's rusted off. It says Nath'l Fisk or Fish; the rest of it is gone. One side has been replaced; the other is the original.

This one on Metropolitan Avenue in Maspeth has been there many a moon. Photo: Christina Wilkinson

5th Avenue just below 44th Street. This one is about 75 years old.

Possibly the most unusual location for a street clock of this type is the one on the boardwalk at Riis Park.

This was taken on Super Bowl Sunday in 1999, on the deserted boardwalk.

Corrections? Questions? E-mail me at erpietri@earthlink.net.

Thanks for visiting the site!