When people think of NC, one of the most common things that comes to mind is the historic bell tower. The bell tower, first installed in 1928, has many recognizable features, including the bells which ring on the hour. However, students and staff have noticed, particularly during this school year, the bell’s inaccuracy.

“All the years I’ve been here we’ve struggled to make those bells and the clock work accurately,” Associate Principal Kevin Brown said. “It’s an actual watch made of gears and levers and pulleys, it’s intricate and imprecise as all machines are. That’s the thing with all physical watches, they lose time.”

The motors on the bells are new, but they are all co-dependent through gears, pulleys and weights, Brown said. There are five little arms around the clock that go up through the holes in the ceiling to reach the hammers, and then the hammers actually hit and ring the bells.

“An electric motor makes the pendulum go but the pendulum, every time it swings to one direction, it is turning another gear,” Director of Buildings and Grounds Kevin Mitros said. “It’s very difficult to repair. There are four faces on that clock that are all interconnected, for the most part they are consistent, but every now and then we have to go up and adjust them.”

Since companies no longer make parts to repair the clock, all the gears on it are pretty much original, Mitros said. They have been maintained since 1928, so for 88 years. In addition, there are only about 10 men in the country who have the expertise to repair these kinds of clocks.

“We use a company from Cincinnati called Verdin Bells & Clocks, and three years ago they asked us if we wanted to keep the nostalgic look, the original 1928 look, keep the sound of the bells but stop the winding and go digital to make sure the time displayed was correct,” Mitros said. “We didn’t pursue that because the sentiment in LaGrange is to maintain the aesthetics of the original clock.”

There has been additional pressure to replace the old system and get an electronic system that will not lose time, Brown said. But with almost everyone having their own phone that tells time, the clock’s original purpose is no longer necessary.

“The bell tower and those bells are integral to the history of LT and I think the community, especially those who live in this area, think of that as a familiar image,” Brown said.

Many clock towers from the earlier part of the 20^th century, similar to LT’s, have already been replaced with chimes and digital clock windings, Mitros said.

“There’s not that many left that have the original equipment in them that still work, ours is one of them,” Mitros said. “So if its off a little bit, I’ll take that, because it still works.”