You could say that sidewalk clocks (along with street lamps and fire call boxes) are the original New York City street furniture.
These elegant cast-iron timepieces began towering over Gotham’s sidewalks in the late 19th century in business districts thick with pedestrian traffic. (In one fanciful instance, the clock was embedded into the sidewalk itself on Broadway and Maiden Lane.)
They were designed for function—this is an era before wristwatches made their debut—as well as advertising. What better way to establish your business as solid and dependable then having its name emblazoned on a charming cast-iron clock?
That’s likely why, in 1898, Adolph Stern placed this black and gold sidewalk clock in front of his shop on Third Avenue near 85th Street. According to a New York Daily News article from 2001, Stern owned a jewelry store on this busy section of Yorkville under the elevated train.
Stern’s store was less a jewelry store and more of a pawn shop that sold jewelry. The Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) has it in their 1981 historic designation report that the clock stands in front of 1501 Third Avenue, which was “occupied by a pawn broker for many years.” The clock “was probably installed as an advertisement for that business,” per the LPC report.
The 17-foot tall double-faced clock standing outside Stern’s shop on 1501 Third Avenue (above and below in 1940, now Stern & Son) became a fixture on the streetscape. “With its paneled base, fluted column, and scroll top, this clock is almost identical to the Sherry Netherland clock,” states the LPC report, of the clock in front of the hotel at Fifth Avenue and 59th Street.
“The dial, however, is crowned by a giant screw and watch fob ring, creating a delightful oversized pocket watch.” The Third Avenue clock had something even more unique above the fob ring: an ancient pawn shop symbol consisting of three gold balls supported by a three-pronged bar (see above and below photos).
For decades, this giant timepiece stood as a witness to a changing neighborhood and a changing world. Wristwatches became normalized; Yorkville began losing its German population, the elevated train came down, Stern’s shop gave way to a furniture store…and handsome examples of street furniture were often left to fall into disrepair.
As the 20th century went on (below in 1932, mostly hidden by the el train) and the old clock became marred by graffiti, it went missing.
“Century-Old Clock Gone From the Sidewalk,” a newspaper headline read in August 1985, explaining that someone made off with the clock after $4,000 had been raised to refurbish it. A witness from a furniture store said they saw several men in a van take it away, claiming they had “police permission.”
Apparently it was just a mix-up: a Long Island man who collects clocks got the go-ahead from a city administrator to buy it and haul it away, according to a Newsday article a month later. The city got it back with the intent of doing repairs.
Restoration came in the late 1990s, and the sidewalk clock was reinstalled in front of 1501 Third Avenue in 1999, according to a plaque on the base of “The Yorkville Clock,” as it’s now called.
Delightful as the clock is (and a comfortable place to lean against, as the man in the photo at top demonstrates), something has been left off it: the three balls that comprises the ancient pawn shop symbol.
Too bad—the symbol (or a reproduction of it) could have served as a wonderful reminder that a pawn shop had the idea to install the clock here more than a century ago.
If the clock looks familiar and you’re an old movie fan, you may have seen it in a scene in the 1945 drama The Lost Weekend, starring Ray Milland. The site nycinfilm.com has photos from the scene where the clock appears and info on how it was shot.
[Third image: NYC Department of Records & Information Services; fourth image: NYC Department of Records & Information Services; fifth image: MCNY, 33.173.234]
Ephemeral New York 