| Wall Clocks home
> Wall Clocks Info Center
> Station Clock
Station Clock
Click
here to see our selection of Station Clock .
 “Meet
me under the clock."
That expression says it all in Kansas City, it has been one of the
most famous clocks in the United States for almost a century. No
further explanation needed, if you live in Kansas City and someone
says “met me under the clock” you know exactly what
they mean, Not only is the station clock famous, but Union Station
is well known all over the United States. People have been saying
it every since Union Station first opened in 1914. “Meet me
under the clock.” There really is no simpler way to arrange
a meeting in the vastness of the Station.
"Meet me under the clock," they say: for a business lunch,
a family reunion, a romantic rendezvous or just to shop.
Although the actual train station Union Station used to be is no
longer functional, Union Station is livelier now than when it was
a train station. Concerts are held there, summer events at the Sprint
Festival Plaza, family reunions etc.
Through the years, dozens of couples have gotten engaged or even
married under the clock. Countless other encounters have occurred
under the clock, most likely because it does most certainly stand
out in the archway that separates Grand Hall from the Sprint Festival
Plaza. Perhaps the Station's most famous icon, is the station clock.
The station clock is 6-1/2 feet across and 3 feet thick -
the station clock weighs a whopping half-ton, and at night, a great
light illuminates the enormous clock face.
Under the station clock the city's greatest timepiece, it seemed
only natural to run the passage of time. Ringing in New Years happening
"under the station clock " rapidly evolved into a Kansas
City tradition long ago. Despite the fact that the federal prohibition
laws on alcohol kept party crowds small through much of the Roaring
1920s, the Station, as well as the famous station clock has never
been an unpopular or desolate place. But as we know, in the 1920s
the police were constantly on the lookout for bootlegged booze at
"underground" parties.
The gatherings inside the Station, where people met at the station
clock steadily swelled, nonetheless. Throughout the 1930s, as many
as 15,000 revelers packed themselves into a smoky Grand Hall and
waiting room each Dec. 31. But, as train travel began to wither
back then, so did Union Station's New Year's Eve parties. Finally,
in the early 1960s, the parties stopped altogether. Then, with the
Station’s reopening in 1999, the tradition was renewed that
station clock, of course, still intact.
The clock is now computerized to adjust automatically to daylight
savings time, and it is working better than ever before. For the
first 80-some years that the station clock hung there in the Station,
the clock's hands were known to regularly scrape against each other.
The station clock had to get ticking again as an essential part
of the Station's renovation. After all—the heart of Kansas
City is Union Station, and so follows that the station clock is
the heart of Union Station.
|
