Eight months after it was toppled and damaged by a truck, a 120-year-old clock was returned to its place on Broad Street in Red Bank Tuesday.
Mike Walker of Tower Clocks USA overseeing the re-installation. (Photos by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
After repair work that included creating a new drum head and replacing the two clock faces, the original cast-iron fixture was reinstalled in front of 36 Broad Street.
The clock was erected in 1902, when jeweler Leon de la Reussille moved his jewelry shop to the building. In 1930, the business became Ballew Jewelers, which continued operation into 2011, though the clock retained the Reussille name.
The Morgan family bought the building, along with the clock, in 2011. The storefront is now home to Chocolate Works.
Whereas the name Reussille was previously beneath both clock faces, one side now bears the name ‘Morgan,’ in honor of his late father, Michael Morgan Sr., company principal Mike Morgan Jr. told redbankgreen.
Among those watching the reinstallation was Marcel Krater of Brick Township, a grand nephew of Leon de la Reussille.
“It’s amazing” that the clock has gotten a new lease on life, Krater told redbankgreen. Clock restorer Mike Walker, of Tower Clocks USA, in Charleston, South Carolina, “did a hell of a job” restoring it, Krater said.
“With nobody hitting it again, and no lightning strikes,” the clock should be set for decades more watching over Broad Street, Walker told redbankgreen.
For more about the clock and its past owners, click here.
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