Old Bolivar High School master clock gains new life as part of Tuscarawas Valley Schools
By Jennifer Kneuss
September 11, 2011
1110
Summary: An almost forgotten piece of local school history has been rediscovered and renewed in the Tuscarawas Valley School District, and now stands as a proud tribute to the past.
Thanks to the suggestion of a thoughtful employee and the determination of several others, the master clock which once ruled the halls of the former Bolivar High School is now tick-tocking onward in the Tuscarawas Valley School District.
When I first came here in July of 2005, this clock was hanging in the superintendents office. It looked nice, but it was not working, and it took up a big chunk of space, explained Tuscarawas Valley Schools superintendent Mark Murphy. It didnt have much meaning attached to it, just that everyone knew that this was the old Bolivar High School clock. We removed the clock, and hung it over at the high school offices. Eventually, the clock ended up in the back of the library and was put into storage.
No one seems to know when the clock was removed from the Bolivar High School building, or how long it had been out of use. The High School was built in 1927, and it is thought that the clock was built specifically for the school. The high school closed in 1956, becoming the Bolivar Elementary School. Somewhere along the way, the clock ended up in the superintendents office, although it was doubtful it was working at the time. The original high school is now the districts intermediate school, housing second, third, and fourth graders.
One of our substitute custodians, Mr. Bob Kahler, saw me in the hallway, and asked me, Mr. Murphy, where is the old Bolivar High School clock? Bob had graduated from Bolivar, so he had a vested interest in knowing the whereabouts of that clock, said Murphy, who went in search of the timepiece. This was a beautiful piece of history. We knew Monroe Troyer, from Swiss Village Time Shop, so I called him, and let him know we had the old electric clock from Bolivar High School that used to run the bell system. I told him, I dont know if you can restore it to working condition or not, but would you be willing to take a look? He was a bit hesitant at first, but agreed to come and look at it.
According to Troyer, the clock was manufactured by The Standard Electric Time Company of Waterbury, Connecticut. The owner of the company, Charles D. Warner, was known for selling synchronized time systems to schools, factories, government facilities, and railroad companies. The clock was designed to advance the secondary classroom clocks each minute so that school bells would ring at precisely the correct time.
Troyer was able to fix the antique clock, and it was rehung.
I invite anyone, any graduate of Bolivar High School, or anyone that is just curious about the standard electric clock that used to be put in school buildings, to come and look at this. Of course, it is not running any bells here. People come in and they think it has chimes in it, because it has a pendulum. It does not. It does have a tape system that used to ring the bells.
Anyone who can shed light on the clocks story is invited to contact Murphy, as the clocks history from 1956 until 2005, almost fifty years later, is largely unknown.
We hung it in the main office, where everyone could see it and enjoy it, said Murphy. From my perspective, Im not one that literally hangs on to everything, but when I see something that is a piece of local and school district history, that I know has special meaning, especially if we can restore it to working condition, what a treasured gift that is to this district.
