Remember When...'tower clocks' kept time for Milwaukeeans?

One of the few remaining street clocks in the city was removed on Jan. 29, 1951. It stood in front of the building at 1129 N. Water St., where the old Van Ess jewelry store was located. Ralph Schultz (left) bought the clock "to putter with." Albert Reed of Greendale was the workman in this picture. In the 1890s, there were about 50 tower clocks in Milwaukee. Sherburn Becker, Milwaukee's "boy mayor" from 1906 to 1908, decided to enforce a city ordinance against sidewalk obstructions and personally headed a picked crew of firemen and policemen who demolished the clocks "gleefully." The clocks, however, came back with David Rose in 1908, only to be slowly removed from the scene by electric clocks and wrist watches. Schultz tells us that later, when his clock's "time was up," he sold the works to another street clock owner. (Photograph and information provided by the Milwaukee Public Library local history collection.)