About Time! King Street Station Clocks Repaired

"King Street Station" by Seattlest Flickr contributor Slightlynorth

Yesterday, we looked up at the clock tower and noticed we had just enough time to duck in for coffee before heading off to...Wait a minute! We what!?!

Yup. It's true.

The King Street Station tower clocks have been repaired and are now keeping correct time. After being idle for more years than anyone cares to remember, the clock's time-keeping mechanisms have been fixed as part of a $23,000 grant from Seattle municipal cultural agency 4Culture .

Additional repairs to the station and clock tower continue as part of a larger and much-needed rehabilitation project to the 102-year-old facility, which is our very own knock-off of St. Mark's Campanile in Venice.

Congratulations Seattle! The south-end of downtown now has a fully-functional icon.

Who knows when the clocks stopped working? Any good memories from when the clocks were in operation?

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By Brad in News on October 13, 2008 11:30 AM

Comments [rss]

Troy Morris

Can we re-write history?

Simonian

I read a story about a building in Paris where a large civic clock had been broken for years. Decades, like. A group of, I kid you not, rogue clockmakers picked the lock of the tower and working in secret and at night over the course of five years fixed the thing. Didn't charge anyone anything and managed to make everyone in authority look like lazy idiots. It's a much better story than a $23,000 grant, anyway.

bilco

So now, presumably, the trains will be on time...

jessejb

I guess it used to be backed with neon light. Theyre currently asking people to find out the original color of the neon bulbs since its not documented anywhere what color they were.

pMM

Actual neon gas only turns one color. Red. So if the original plans indicated a neon back lit clock, it would have been red. All the other colors you see in "neon lights" these days aren't actually made with neon, and were invented way after King Street Station was built. I'm psyched, I can't wait until their done... it's a cool building in a sea of ugly Paul Allen let's-make-seattle-as-ugly-as-redmond buildings. Vulcan should be run out of town, but that's a different story!

Matt G1

You got me Kamala.

This site tells me it stopped working in the '90's. You can trust this number, because it's on the Internet.

Katelyn

Kamala... lol. Now I have to watch that again, asap.

Tom

Kamala,

Haha... I'll make sure to keep my eye out for tricked out DeLoreans next month.

Troy Morris

Wow. That's a good, damn long time.

I remember in H.S. when I'd take the train and I would look at all the advertising and papers on the restoration.... that was 8 years ago.... I'm still reading them.