The architect designed custom clocks for the Pennsylvania Capitol in the last century. They still accompany

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HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – The Capitol building is almost always an imposing presence. The seat of government, they are usually beautiful and dignified – and often covered by a dome.

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Visitors to Pennsylvania’s Capitol are drawn to its precious art, polished marble and intricate paintings, but hidden behind the doors of its highly decorated offices and rooms is another treasure: hundreds of antique clocks that were part of its original design.

273 functional clocks including many are combined with fire bells and other construction elements.

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It is not low maintenance, requiring regular lubrication and periodic mechanical repairs.

And each week, in a throwback to a time before wristwatches and cell phones, the clock winds through the halls – ensuring that centenarians and older timekeepers keep ticking.

On a recent morning, Bethany Gill demonstrated how to _ go from room to room with multiple ladders and custom tools. He opens the glass cases, rotates enough processes to last a week and checks their accuracy before moving on to the next one.

Gill was an art student working for Johnson & Griffiths Studio, a Harrisburg firm that recently received a five-year, $526,000 painting contract renewal and maintenance contract renewal from the Capitol Preservation Committee.

He is also a lifelong clock enthusiast who looks forward to the annual changes between daylight saving time and Eastern Standard Time.

Why?

“My dad was a watch collector growing up,” Gill said. And every Sunday we went around the house and struck the clocks. And that was always a good thing I did with my dad.”

Pennsylvania’s Capitol was designed by architect Joseph M. Huston, who won his design competition in 1901 with a vision of a temple of democracy – a palace of art as beautiful as could be found in Europe.

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Among other nice touches, Huston designed at least 180 custom clock cases, including small clocks called keystone clocks shaped to remind people of Pennsylvania’s early and important role in the founding of the United States, earning it the nickname Keystone. The country.

“The clocks are part of why this building is so unique and so complex,” said Capitol Preservation Committee historian Jason Wilson. “The caps around the watches are all custom made.”

Every now and then the clocks, most of them made of mahogany or stained mahogany, are carefully removed from their places around the Capitol and taken to the center to be cleaned, preserved and repaired. They seem to run better when they are stored damaged.

Huston, an architect, achieved his goal. The Capitol is a spectacle that draws thousands of visitors every year where 253 state lawmakers meet to speak and pass legislation.

Although the buildings and clocks are his lasting legacy, Huston was convicted of conspiracy to defraud the state during the construction of the Capitol and spent several months in another Pennsylvania landmark, the Eastern County Jail in Philadelphia.

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