Robert Redden, a locally well-known pen-and-ink artist, sent my parents a card in 1970. It shows a rendering of Rome’s most famous (again, locally) structure, the City Clock, or the Clock Tower.
The brick tower was built in 1872 to house a water tank, Rome’s first source of piped drinking water. A year later a large, white clock was added to the top. The tower stands on Neely Hill (now often called Clock Tower Hill), two blocks from downtown. It’s visible from much of the immediate city. It’s also visible from our new house.
This is our view east off the front porch of our new house looking towards downtown Rome. The arrow indicates the tiny speck that is the City Clock as seen from around eight miles away.
The arrow is pointing towards the Clock Tower.
I zoomed in as much as I could with my little Nikon point-and-shoot to get this shot.
That close to the ground there are air currents, particulate matter and temperature gradients that compromise visibility even on a clear day. The blue sky also tends to give the scene an overall blue tint.
Leah’s mother Venita was a china painter. Here is her rendering.
This is hanging on our living room wall. My father’s sister Francis did this needlepoint or petit point rendering of the City Clock in 1977.
Here is a photograph Leah and I made Friday night.
The area several blocks around the City Clock is known as Between the Rivers. This Google Earth image shows why.
The upper river in the image is the Oostanaula. The river at the bottom is the Etowah. They join at the 100 block of Broad Street to form the Coosa River, which then flows into Alabama and eventually to the Gulf of Mexico. The building with the green roof to the left of the clock tower is the old US Post Office, where my father worked for many years.
This is a zoomed view.
I labeled the Clock Tower. This view is almost straight down to the clock. The tower’s shadow is visible pointing slightly to the left of up in the image. We took the picture standing near where the “m” is in “Camera.” The street that runs above the City Clock roughly bottom right towards top left is Fifth Avenue. Fifth Avenue is a very steep downhill two blocks to Broad Street. When my father was a kid, he and his friends would time the traffic light at Fifth Avenue and Broad Street so that they could push off on their bicycles right at the base of the clock tower, zoom down the hill and hit a green light on Broad Street. I think he was a lucky kid.
Leah’s father’s family lived about a block from the City Clock. My father’s uncle Charlie lived for a time on Third Avenue.
Some of Rome’s oldest and most impressive homes are in this area. We took our photograph next to, and later on the steps of, a house that recently sold for over $1 million. You can see one of its columns to the left in our picture. This house as well as many of the others in this area are huge monuments to something or other. Conspicuous consumption, I believe.
Although Between the Rivers is a prestigious area, living there does have its drawbacks. One of them is a 32-inch-tall bronze bell at the top of the City Clock that chimes the hours. Every hour. Day and night.
The next time Leah and I are near downtown, I want to use some binoculars to try to see our new house from the City Clock.
This is such a great post! I love it. I had never heard of this clock tower, so it is truly interesting to read about something with such a long and wonderful history there. The view east from your new porch is fantastic. I can’t wait to see the sunrises you’re going to be running out every morning to photograph!
What a view you have – and what family treasures related to it! Like Robin I look forward to your sunrise photos.
I was born in your neighboring state on the Coosa River. My father was said to have said of me as an infant, “She flows like the Coosa.”
Robin — Thanks. We are looking forward to moving to the new house. I’m working up there a fair amount now, and I have to stop every once in a while to look out the front window.
Minnie — A neighbor! Cool!