CAPITAL CULTURE: Senate will overhaul its famed Ohio Clock, but mysteries will stay intact

CAPITAL CULTURE: Mystery of the Old Clock persists

WASHINGTON — For 193 years the Ohio Clock has stood watch over the U.S. Senate, a subject of rumor, curiosity and misinformation.

Was it made in Ohio? Did senators stash whiskey inside it?

Now the elegant clock is making its first journey beyond the Capitol. That may not answer the questions, but it will give the clock a long-needed renovation, inside and out, Senate officials say.

The 11-foot-tall piece is a Capitol landmark. Countless press conferences are held there — reporters know “OCC” means Ohio Clock corridor — as are informal meet-ups of staffers and friends.

Starting in 1817 it stood in the old Senate chamber. Since 1859 it has held its current post, outside the modern-day chamber’s south door.

Soon it will travel to Boston, where furniture restorers will work on the dark wooden case, and a clockmaker will overhaul the working parts, said Senate curator Diane K. Skvarla. The clock has been repaired and revarnished on site over the years, she said, but never “professionally conserved.”

Workers will try to peel away layers of varnish on the case to revive the “rich patina” lurking beneath, she said.

“The quality of the wood is going to be beautiful,” she said.

The clock, which is lubricated regularly and wound weekly, still keeps accurate time, as it has for nearly two centuries. But engineers recently concluded “this is a clock that is waiting to stop,” Skvarla said, and the overhaul of the working parts may be extensive.

The renovations will make the piece lovelier, she said, but they won’t solve the mystery of the old clock.

To begin with, Skvarla said, no one knows how it became associated with Ohio. It was made in Philadelphia, as the face clearly states, and it reportedly came straight to Washington.

One theory holds that the clock commemorates Ohio becoming the 17th state, because the case’s shield has 17 stars. No records support that story, however, and Louisiana had become the 18th state before the clock was built.

Then there’s the long-standing rumor that senators hid whiskey in the case. There’s no proof of that, either, Skvarla said.

However, some news reporters admitted keeping booze there when they were temporarily stationed in the corridor in the late 1940s. (See, sometimes you really can blame the media!)

The clock has taken some lumps. The blast from a bomb planted in 1983 just outside the Senate chamber broke the glass covering the clock’s face. The “Armed Resistance Unit” took credit for the bomb, retaliating the U.S. military’s involvement in Grenada and Lebanon. The piece that replaced the glass was too heavy, causing problems for the hinges, Skvarla said, so a lighter piece of glass will be installed.

One thing won’t be fully restored: the chimes, which stopped working years ago. Workers will repair the clock’s bell, Skvarla said, but not activate it, lest the chimes interrupt news conferences and other events in the corridor.

When the refurbished clock returns to the Capitol in October, all will be well in a place that loves its traditions and history.

After all, as Skvarla notes, “Everybody says ‘Meet you at the Ohio Clock.’ They don’t say ‘Meet you at the George Washington portrait.’”

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Online: www.senate.gov/artandhistory/art/myths/OHClockname_myth.htm