The sole remaining Pennell clock face is now back in the Pennell building after being taken down and stored during the clock restoration of 1992. After a long and well-deserved rest, the face will once again keep time, this time from inside the Pennell building.
Gray Historical Society member and Pennell alumni, Don Whitney, is leading the effort to preserve and showcase the only surviving clock face. Plans to not only mount the clock face in the building, but to actually make it keep time again are underway.
Doug Webster, a student of the workings of the clock and largely responsible for the historic preservation of the clock and Pennell itself, is assisting Don in the planning and execution of mounting and mechanizing the clock face.
Due to the size (nearly eight feet in diameter) and weight, the location inside the Pennell building is still undecided. The face will remain in its present original state complete with faded peeling paint and chips. An original set of hands will be re-installed. The difficult task and (costly) will be to run the necessary gears and connecting shafts to the face somewhere in the historic building.
Doug Webster of the Town of Gray Community Development Office ~ and a self-professed “clock advocate” ~ has been intimately involved with the project and has provided additional background history and recent project developments in his memo to the Pennell Alumni Association and Gray Historical Society. The memo, available here in PDF format, includes background on the dial location in the Pennell building, a discussion of the possibility of a first-floor monitor, next steps, and more. He concludes that “the residents of Gray and other interested parties are incredibly fortunate to have a community jewel such as Pennell with the historic gravity-driven Town Clock as perhaps its centerpiece.”
Read the entire MEMO [PDF]
Funding for the project will come from donations which can be mailed directly to:
Town of Gray
Pennell Clock Face Restoration Fund
24 Main St, Gray ME 04039
