The Clock Tower

On the waterfront

Originally purchased for the courthouse from the Buffalo Exposition in 1902 for $700, the bell is inscribed "to the City of Petoskey from Mrs. Curtis." The bell weighs 800 pounds and the clock faces weigh 500 pounds each. When it was purchased, the clock faces were black and the hands and frame were white. In 1916 Mrs. Curtis got permission from the council to have the clock illuminated and paid for replacing the black eight foot high faces with light ground glass. The hands of the clock and the frame were then painted black.

​When the courthouse was torn down in October 1965, the local Historical Commission saved the clock and bell. They raised $20,000 to bring the clock to the museum. Two clock faces and the bell were installed on the Little Traverse History Museum in 1975 as a Bicentennial project of the Historical Society. The bell was rung each time someone donated $100 or more to the preservation of the bell. However, it was discovered that the weight of the clock faces and bell were too much for the museum building and it was removed on October 31, 1988. When the city renovated the waterfront in the mid-1990s, a 62-foot clock tower was built and the clock and bell placed there in May of 1996.

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