Seems like every small downtown has one – a clock that sits in the middle of town as a landmark: “Meet me at the clock.” St. Johnsbury’s clock on the corner of Main and Eastern Avenue is just such a landmark for the town. In years past, the Randall and Whitcomb stationery store advertised their location at the intersection as, "on the corner by the clock."

Owned by the Fairbanks Museum, it’s been here since 1910, when it was brought from New York City’s Grand Central Station and erected by H. W. Randall.  At the time, it cost $700, according to “The Town of St. Johnsbury,” a history of the town written in 1914 by Edward T. Fairbanks.

You may have noticed that the clock had stopped a long while back. Recently, a small group of people in town decided it was time to get the clock working again.

“Every twenty years or so, the clock needs an overhaul,” says Bob Desrochers. He should know – he’s been involved in the last two times the clock needed work, in the early 1970s and again in the 1990s. This summer, Desrochers contacted Peggy Pearl at the Fairbanks Museum and Dick Diefenbach, local clockmaker, to get them involved. Both had been part of previous renovations of the clock, so everyone knew what had to be done.
Workers from Desrochers’s company, Fairbanks Mill, handled the work of sandblasting and repainting the clock. Glass for a new bezel was obtained from Mayo’s Glass, and Dick Diefenbach worked on the inner parts of the clock to get it in running order. After sealing the clock against the elements, it was wound and back in action in September.
About that winding…Desrochers says the clock must be wound every week – no batteries in that old clock! For now, he is happy to take care of those duties. “It’s fun to be part of an effort for almost forty years, off and on,” says Desrochers. “I guess we’ll have to do it again in another twenty years or so.”

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