Hampstead will hold a dedication ceremony for a new town clock on Saturday evening, at the War Memorial on Main Street.
There ceremony will be held at 5:30 p.m. at the corner of Main Street and Black Rock Road, with speeches by Hampstead Mayor Chris Nevin and Lee Stansfield, a member of the Hampstead School Alumni Association, which raised the funds for the clock. Stansfield will also unveil the new timepiece, an 11-foot tall “Post Courtyard 4N” made of green cast aluminum with gold accents buy the Verdin Company, according to a Hampstead media release.
“Growing up in Hampstead, there was always a clock there at the Hampstead bank at the corner of Shiloh and Main. It’s been broken for years and years,” Stansfield said. “We thought maybe it would be nice, since the town was revitalizing with new streets and sidewalks and everything, if we could come up with something?”
The Hampstead School operated as everything from elementary school to high school between 1912 and 1985, and the alumni association gets together every year to discuss any projects they can do for the town, according to Stansfield. In the past, the group has funded a bronze park sculpture, helped the Hampstead fire company upgrade their sound system and a flagpole at the town police department, among other projects.
“The Hampstead School Alumni’s affection for their hometown has been demonstrated through the years by these notable gifts,” Nevin said of the association’s gifts in a statement. “The Alumni were all raised here and these former students and their families served as the foundation from which our Town has been built.”
But when the idea of a new clock was raised, Stansfield said, it quickly became apparent that it would be the largest such project the group had ever taken on.
“The price of the clock was close to $10,000,” he said. “We put a letter out to all our members about the idea. Low and behold, the donations started coming in, and within two years we had raised the $10,000 to purchase the clock.”
The final fruition of that projects will be the dedication ceremony Saturday, followed by the festivities of the town’s last Music in the Park concert for the year, as Hickory Wind bring their bluegrass, folks and country tones to the memorial park, and Saint John’s United Methodist Church provides snacks and beverages.