Clock Is Back in the Tick of Things

After two years of planning, local historian and clock buff Tim Rush this week restarted the clock that once sat in the city’s historic Spurgeon Building.

The pendulum clock, about 5 feet tall, looks much like a grandfather clock but hangs on a wall rather than standing free. It is now in the historic Howe-Waffle House, which doubles as headquarters for the Santa Ana Historical Preservation Society.

Experts who helped repair and install the clock said it could date as far back as 1910 and put its value at about $1,000.

The timepiece was the Spurgeon Building’s so-called “master clock,” used to set the time for the building’s other clocks, including a 32-foot rooftop clock that was recently restored to working order.

A former owner of the Spurgeon Building, which is now home to city government offices and private businesses, agreed to lend the clock to the preservation society on condition that it be displayed. Rush, who is on the preservation society board, was happy to oblige.

“It was close to two years,” Rush said as the clock began ticking Tuesday, “and I finally got my hands on it.”

Other antique clocks dot the Howe-Waffle House, which Rush hopes eventually to turn into a watch and clock museum.

Rush learned about the existence of the master clock in 1995 when he began a campaign to restore the Spurgeon rooftop clock. A member of the National Assn. of Watch and Clock Collectors, he enlisted the help of two fellow members to clean and install the clock.

City Councilman Thomas E. Lutz also lent a hand this week, helping to hang the clock’s5-foot-tall wooden case.

Rush, Lutz and fellow clock buffs Dick Pridham and Roy Crowe spent about an hour Tuesday hammering the movement, or gears, into place and hanging the pendulum, which is weighted with mercury. And when their work was done, sure enough, the timepiece worked.