W. Feliciana courthouse clock sounds hours again

• By JAMES MINTON
• Advocate Baker - Zachary bureau
• Published: Nov 17, 2008 - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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ST. FRANCISVILLE — A nationally recognized clock restoration expert began putting the finishing touches Saturday on the completely restored 108-year-old clock that tops the West Feliciana Parish Courthouse.

Until it stopped working years ago, the clock displayed the time on the four faces of the building’s copper-clad dome.

The courthouse was built in 1903, and David Seay, of Manhattan, Kan., said the clock, which is operated by a system of weights much like a household cuckoo clock, was built about 1900 by the E. Howard Watch and Clock Co. of Boston, the premier watch and clock manufacturer in those days.

The West Feliciana Parish Police Jury hired Seay to restore the clock, including making it once again sound the time on the hour and half-hour by striking a bell installed in the dome beneath the clock mechanism.

Seay, owner of Regulator Time Co., dismantled the mechanism that operates the clock in March and took it to his workshop for an extensive overhaul.

“It was a huge project because it was missing so many parts,” Seay said last week while installing two of the exterior faces with the help of a huge crane. The crane is scheduled to return today to allow Seay to finish the job.

The original contract called for Seay to finish the work in six months, but Seay said he thought in March he might be able to do it in half that time.

“Here it is November. It took me longer than I thought,” he said.

Many parts of the clock were removed when it was modified, apparently in the 1930s.

Some of the gear wheels were missing, including the largest ones.

“I found replacements for some of them, and I made some,” Seay said.

The restoration work included making 25 bolts, 5/16 of an inch by 18 inches, from brass.

“At the turn of the century, 5/16 wasn’t the same diameter as 5/16  is today. I didn’t want to drill out the holes to make today’s bolts fit,” he said.