Wondering about the latest updates on the renovation project at the Historic Green County Courthouse? I stepped away from this topic for a few months, but I’m back with part five of this ongoing series.
If you’ve been downtown, maybe you’ve seen the big capstone blocks sitting on pallets on the sidewalk on the west side of the building. Soon, those will be back up on top of the west gable. And due to the expert craftsmanship of the masons on the job, they will be lined up and leveled to precision.
The next phase of the project will be a giant vertical leap up to the clock tower. If you recall from an earlier article, parts of the peak of the original clock tower blew down in a windstorm in the 1950’s. At that time, the tower was capped flat with a “flexicore” slab. A new peak (the one you see today) was installed on top of that slab in 1985. As with many other areas of the building, however, years of Wisconsin winter freeze and thaw cycles caused structural deficits within and around the layers of brick that make up the tower walls.
To get a sense of the project, here’s a “virtual tour” of the tower since it’s not accessible to the public. From the attic, climb up 29 stairs. Along the way, you’ll see the remnants of the cables and pulleys that originally powered the clock, a system later replaced with an electric motor. At the top of the stairs is a trapdoor and a landing, and this is where the bell is. Climb another 30 steps to another trapdoor and landing, and this is where the clock is. From here, a series of ladders lead up to the underside of that concrete slab. If you were brave enough to go through the next tiny trap door, you’d be up in the peak of the tower.
When the giant crane comes back downtown, it will be used to lift that peak off the tower and set it aside. Then the slab will be removed. Workers will begin removing damaged bricks and mortar, row by row. When they get to areas that are sound, they’ll begin the process of rebuilding the walls. They’ll be going down to at least the clock floor, and potentially down to the bell floor — depending on what they find along the way.
The clock is a work of art and engineering. The clock faces are 6 feet wide. The “clockworks” (gears, motor) is housed in what looks to me like an old-fashioned wooden ice fishing shanty, complete with a door, windows, and some cut-out spots on each side. The cut outs are to accommodate the four long rods that project from the center motor to connect and turn the clock hands on each of the four clock faces.
The clock faces are built right into the walls of the tower, so along with the clockworks they will be temporarily removed and set aside. Restoration will include sandblasting, repainting of the Roman numerals and ornamentation, and installation of new hands. Each face will be reframed and put back in place as the walls are rebuilt.
In the early days, when a “clock doctor” was called upon to make repairs or adjustments, they kept a log of the work that was done. But it wasn’t a paper record. Instead, they simply made a few notes right on the wooden walls of the “shanty” building — including a penciled diagnosis of “frostbite of the minute hand” from repairman Nick Speth, who fixed the problem by clearing away the ice and snow.
Over the years, courthouse employees and others who made their way up into the tower have also signed their names. This bit of history will be preserved: the shanty will be put back in place where it will continue to protect the clockworks from the dust that is sure to settle again in the future.
The bottom line on the project timeline? Up in the air. Masonry can’t be done when the temperature goes below freezing, so the push to complete the clock tower before winter will be an “all hands-on deck” effort. It is entirely possible that this part of the project will be put on hold and not completed until next spring.
— Noreen Rueckert is the director for Green County Tourism, director for Green County Cheese Days, and committee co-chair for Concerts on the Square with Main Street. She can be reached at noreen@tds.net.
