Fixing MOHAI's historic street clock to cost at least $10,000

The historic street clock that stands outside the Museum of History & Industry, gutted sometime over the Christmas weekend, can be fixed.

But it will cost at least $10,000.

That's the prognosis from Pete Sorenson, an expert in repairing Seattle's street clocks who looked at the clock Tuesday.

Sorenson rebuilt the clock in 2006 after it couldn't be wound because its sprocket broke, so he's familiar with the MOHAI clock.

Over the weekend, museum officials said, someone stole the inner workings of the historic Carroll's clock, which had been donated to MOHAI. Also taken were the brass pendulum and the marble slab the clock parts were sitting on.

Officials don't know when the theft occurred, but the clock stopped at 10 minutes to 11.

Mercedes Lawry, MOHAI spokeswoman, said the thieves tried to pry off the back of the clock on Christmas Eve or Christmas morning. When that didn't work, they pried open the front of the clock and cut the metal that holds the clock works in place, stealing the parts and the 3-foot pendulum.

Lawry doesn't know whether the thieves were after the works or the brass, since there have been a rash of metal thefts over the past year.

"It's a dramatic 4-ton clock," she said. "It's very unfortunate."

Sorenson, a retired metal-shop instructor, said he contacted a man in New York who builds replicas of street clocks and was told he could find replacement parts. But it won't be cheap.

MOHAI officials say the clock was insured, but they don't know if the insurance will pay for the repairs.

The 15-foot clock used to stand on Fourth Avenue and Pike Street in front of Carroll's Jewelers in downtown Seattle. Owner Herbert Carroll would wind the clock himself every Monday morning.

When the store went out of business, the Carrolls donated the clock to MOHAI, and it was installed there in August 2008. The mechanical clock must be wound once a week.

The landmark clock was built in 1913 and installed in front of the jewelry store in 1915. It is one of just nine historic clocks remaining in Seattle, said Robert Ketcherside, a clock historian.

The theft was reported to Seattle police.

Ketcherside said the clock was built by Joseph Mayer, a Seattle jeweler who made many of the clocks that were on Seattle streets. The clocks are slowly disappearing.

Susan Gilmore: 206-464-2054 or sgilmore@seattletimes.com