Time to go home

A huge pedestal clock has come back to downtown Reno.

The clock, built by the Mayer Company of Seattle and the E. Howard Company of Boston, stood in the downtown in front of Ginsburg Jewelers until the 1960s when Park Lane Mall developer Sonner Greenspan obtained ownership and moved it to Park Lane where it was installed and used as a symbol of the mall in advertising.

When plans to demolish Park Lane were announced, the clock was donated to the city (“Time for preservation,” RN&R, Feb. 14, 2008). It was one of two pedestal clocks that stood in mid-block on Virginia Street between First and Second streets across the street from each other for decades. The other clock was two-sided and its fate is unknown. The Mayer/Howard clock has four faces.

Since the city took ownership, it has been in storage until money could be found to refurbish it. City spokesperson Michelle Anderson said in an email message, “The Cal-Neva Hotel and Casino donated/offered to pay all the costs associated with the refurbishment, transportation, installation, and insurance necessary” to put the clock back in working order.

The clock has been installed on the southeast corner of Virginia and First as part of the concrete plaza where the Mapes Hotel once stood, half a block south—and on the other side of Virginia—from its historic location.

Sparks has a similar four-faced pedestal clock in place downtown, but it has been nonfunctional for years. Recently it was moved a few dozen feet south.