BOSTON (WHDH) - It was high time for repairs to Boston’s historic Custom House Tower clock.
For the first time since the 1980s, the clock hands were replaced on the tower — which is affectionately known to some as the “four face liar” because of issues with those hands.
“They were getting saturated and waterlogged,” project manager Lauren Knollmeyer said. “So as they got waterlogged they got heavier, slowing down the clock mechanism, that’s why historically it’s been a little off of time.”
The new hands were recrafted and built out of carbon fiber resin. The minute hand stretches 13 feet long.
“The color, the size, the shape, everything had to be approved,” owner Chris Knollmeyer said. “Even the weight had to be exactly the same for the clock mechanisms to work.”
Once the hands were complete, crews got to work 500 feet in the air on Tuesday to place them back on the city’s first skyscraper.
“They’re a big object to haul all the way up here and have a guy install from a rope,” Chris Knollmeyer said.
All to restore the face of a Boston icon.
“Having this opportunity is probably a once-in-a-lifetime thing, maybe twice if we need to replace these again in 30 years,” Lauren Knollmeyer said.
SKY7-HD flew above the scene as crews put the final touches on the face of the historic Custom House.
This is just a small part of a much bigger renovation that is expected to last a few more years.
“We’re just trying to beat the clock on this literally,” Lauren Knollmeyer said.
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