From the top of Winnipeg's old 'Gingerbread' city hall to the inside of Portage Place Shopping Centre, the city's historic clock has been ticking for 120 years. Now a question mark hangs over its future.
The climb to the top of the clock tower of Winnipeg's old city hall building was dark and eerie, and for Norman Beattie – just 10-years-old at the time – it was terrifying.
Beattie's father had been the caretaker of the building and gave him and his mother a tour that left them with a 'jaundiced' view of the beautiful building. Under the upper windows that overlooked Main Street, hundreds of spent flashbulbs scattered the floor – left behind by intrepid newspaper reporters who would climb up inside the building to get a picture of a parade or event on Main Street.
That clock has been a part of Winnipeg's history for 120 years, but now a question mark hangs over its future.When it was installed in the tower of the old city hall building in May 1903, it was the city's first public clock and was guaranteed by its makers not to vary by 10 seconds a month, according to records from the city's archival department.
"We see here today the first of what is going to be a tremendous revitalization, an unprecedented development in the history of the City of Winnipeg," Mayor William Norrie said during the grand opening.Towering above Norrie as he cut the ribbon, officially opening the mall for business, was the historic clock tower.
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