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The historic Odd Fellows Clock Tower on East Main Street is undergoing more work, with its distinctive copper-appearing topper about to be delicately unwrapped to reveal what infrastructure work might be needed, the last phase of an ongoing project helped along with community support. |
Historic Odd Fellows Clock Tower restoration work
November 23, 2011
By Peggy Kelly
Santa Paula News
The historic Odd Fellows Clock Tower on East Main Street is undergoing more work, with its distinctive copper-appearing topper about to be delicately unwrapped to reveal what infrastructure work might be needed, the last phase of an ongoing project helped along with community support.
“With the clock tower wrapped in scaffolding, we’re obviously in the final stages of getting everything done,” said Odd Fellow Wes Easley. “We’re just waiting for the sheet metal professional to come out and strip the exterior of the clock tower,” by its patina appearing to be a rich copper but actually made of a tin material.
Easley said once stripped of the covering, the wood frame will be inspected and replaced as needed, structural strength double-checked and a new door installed. “There are a lot of little pieces” such as the louvered portals on each side of the tower that Easley said must also be replaced.
Once brought up to structural snuff, the “entire structure will be wrapped in waterproof” material and then the tin replaced, a job Easley hopes does not include replacing the flagpole, but if needed that will also be done. In all the work should be completed in about a month, “if everything goes okay, but you know how construction goes - especially in wet weather.”
The renovation of the instantly recognizable building, a landmark that appears on city and other logos, is a project that has “been going on for quite a while.... We got into it in earnest about two years ago” as funding was set aside.
The cost of the latest phase of the project of course will depend on actual work needed, but Easley believes “It will be a minimum of $30,000 and can go up from there.... The clock tower was built in 1905” on a 4,000 square foot pad that holds two stories, “plus that nice little mezzanine lounge up there.”
Santa Paula’s oldest fraternal organization, Odd Fellows Lodge #314 got its Clock Tower because the community wanted and funded it: “The Odd Fellows were going with just the building, and the community said wouldn’t it be nice to have a town clock, so people got together and paid for that portion. And the Odd Fellows have maintained it for more than 100 years,” but age and the weather have taken a toll on the iconic structure.
Any donation is welcome, big or small, and Easley said every penny would be used for the tower restoration. “Whatever people can give goes 100 percent directly to the tower,” and that includes those who stop in on the first floor (the former home of Brownie’s Basement) where T-shirts, artwork and Christmas trains and related items are among an inventory of fun things to buy.
Easley said the ground floor “should be open just about all the time because I’m starting to work on our annual Christmas train display... we’re keeping it downstairs and it’s going to be huge.” Once completed - Easley is estimating December 1 - the famous train display will be open to the public in exchange for a small donation.
“We’re really excited that we started the Clock Tower work; we’ve got butterflies in our stomachs” about what will be found when the exterior covering is stripped. Will it be something historical, documents, collectibles, or just wood beams that must be replaced? “Well, we’ve talked about this project for a long time and now it has come to fruition,” and Easley, like the other Odd Fellows, is most looking forward to project completion.
Donations - although a nonprofit organization, contributions are not tax deductible - can be sent to Odd Fellows, P.O. Box 304, Santa Paula, CA 93061. For more information call Easley at 766-4400 or Carlos Juarez at 290-5525.
