FIRST TIME. Street clocks of 1st Avenue

by Kevin Walsh

Remember that Outer Limits episode where David McCallum creates a “time tilter” out of about 200 clocks and a lot of piano wire? Your webmaster is also a clock aficionado. The basic clock design, numbers from 1 to 12 arranged in a circle with two “hands,” lends itself to thousands of design possibilities, and NYC artisans over the years have taken full advantage, creating hundreds of different street clocks, some standing alone and some mounted on buildings and above entrances.

I’ve already created a standalone street clock page, and will be following later on with a page with building-mounted ones.

I was meandering up 1st Avenue in Lenox Hill, in the midst of a walk from Penn Station to Astoria, when I noticed a concentration of clocks between East 74th and East 79th Streets…

At East 74th Street, the clock that belonged to a former bank branch greets patients at a Memorial Sloan Kettering branch at 1429 1st Avenue. Apparently they didn’t “spring ahead” since the time was 1:55.

Many other bank branches now serve different purposes.

RIGHT: clock outside the Saratoga Apartments, a 39-story tower completed in 1985 at 1st Avenue and East 75th Street.


Old-style clock at the Wicked Wolf, directly across the street from the Saratoga on East 75th.

And one more on East 79th and 1st Avenue at the Agata & Valentina restaurant. Likely once a bank building, the restaurateurs have wisely kept the green and gold corner clock.

9/6/07