Bromo Seltzer Tower clocks are out of sync

The Baltimore Sun

THE PROBLEM -- One of the clock faces on the Bromo Seltzer Tower shows the wrong time.

THE BACKSTORY -- This problem started a couple of weeks ago, when reader Maura Deeley noticed that the times on all four clock faces atop the 200-foot-high tower at Eutaw and Lombard streets showed different times, none of them correct.

Watchdog investigated and found that she was right. At 5:40 a.m., the 25-foot-tall clock facing south showed 2:23. The clocks facing west and north said it was 5:16. According to the clock facing east, it was 5:20.

"Maybe the clock winder took off for the summer," Deeley speculated in an e-mail.

It turns out that work to upgrade the tower might have damaged the clock.

The city acquired the tower -- built in 1911 to resemble the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, Italy -- to turn it into an urban arts center, and the $1.3 million renovation is expected to be completed next month. Tracy Baskerville, spokeswoman for the Baltimore Office of Promotion & the Arts, said the clock was serviced in September and that workers adjusted the clock for daylight-saving time in March.

"As part of the renovation, a clock specialist was brought in this summer to service and review the condition of the clock," Baskerville said. "He believes some dust and debris from the renovation process had dirtied some of the clock parts. He has cleaned the mechanisms, and the construction team is working to seal the clock area so the dust won't enter the space during the rest of the renovation."

Three of the 100-year-old clock faces now show the correct time. The one facing south, however, is still wrong. On July 11, it showed the time to be 2:28, when the correct time on the other clock faces showed 11:40.

Parts for the broken clock face have to be custom-made. "It's not like you can go to Home Depot," Baskerville said.

Baskerville said the south-facing clock should be fixed today.

WHO CAN FIX THIS -- Kathleen Basham, chief operating officer of the Baltimore Office of Promotion & the Arts, 410-752-8632.

UPDATE

The incorrect bus times posted on a Maryland Transit Administration schedule at a stop on Liberty Road have been fixed. The bus that had arrived at the impossible time of 6:61 a.m. now arrives at 7:01 a.m., according to the new schedule. Other similar mistakes also have been corrected.

Cheron Wicker, an MTA spokeswoman, said a spelling error - "Octobeer" - on the same sign has been corrected. Reader Audrey Crooks saw the mistake in a Watchdog photograph that ran last week: "No wonder the M-8 bus isn't on time - the MD Transit Adm. doesn't even know how to spell October."

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