Ayer Mill Clock Tower
Visible from virtually every corner of the Lawrence, MA, the Ayer Mill Clock Tower dominates the city’s landscape. The tower is at the center of Lawrence’s history and the focal point of many of my photographs of her mills. This Story contains some of my personal favorite images of the Clock Tower taken from around the city, images of the interior from two separate visits, and some general facts about the Clock Tower and its history.
The Centerpiece
The Ayer Mill Clock Tower was built in 1910 as the centerpiece of the Ayer Mill, part of the American Woolen Company. It stands 267 feet tall, has four glass clock faces which, at 22.5 in diameter, are only six inches smaller than those London's Big Ben, making it the second largest four-faced chiming clock in the world.
When the textile industry migrated south in the 1950s, the mill closed, the clock stopped ticking, and the clock tower fell into serious disrepair.
The tower was restored to its past glory in 1991 through efforts led by Greater Lawrence Community Foundation and Essex County Community Foundation (ECCF), and contracted to M&A Architectural Preservation. The roof was repaired, clock mechanism restored, bell replaced, masonry restored, and new lighting system installed.
The Ayer Mill today is home to New Balance Factory Stores, while the Clock Tower is owned by the ECCF. which is responsible for its upkeep through a permanent endowment.
Outreach for Access
With the Ayer Mill Clock Tower a focal point of many of my images of Lawrence, I knew my work in the city wouldn’t be complete without photographs of its interior. It was the fall of 2010, and I had been photographing the mills and landscape of Lawrence for a few years. With fingers crossed, I reached out to the ECCF via email requesting access. They responded, indicating they were open to the idea.
After some back and forth, a date and time was set. I was to meet the Keeper of the Clock, Charlie Waite in the lobby of the New Balance in the Ayer Mill building on October 9, 2010 at noon.
I met Charlie in the lobby as planned. He told me that, because of liability concerns, tours of the Clock Tower are rare, making me feel even more fortunate. I signed the obligatory liability waiver and we made our way up and onto the roof, walking across to the base of the tower.
Minus the Tower, the Ayer Mill is six stories tall. The Tower adds an additional two or three stories—very tall stories—accessible via narrow steel staircases and through hatches separating the levels.
The Clock Keeper
There are several sections to the tower: the Base Level for access; the Cistern Room that houses a 20,000-gallon water cistern; the Bell Room with a 6,000 lb bell; and the Clock level. I grabbed a couple of shots on the way up, but mainly photographed the clock level.
The four walls on the clock level, each with a clock face were identical. Rising up from the floor is a small room that houses the clock works mechanism. An array of lights facing the clock faces, and rising into the rafters, the steel braces that form the Tower’s skeleton to complete the scene.
Role in Restoration
Along the way, Charlie was generous with his knowledge of Lawrence’s history and that of the Clock Tower, telling stories of the restoration and his role in it.
A machinist by trade, Charlie repaired and reconstructed elements of the clock mechanism. He also did some of the grunt work, like helping to shovel out the approximately six feet of bird droppings that had accumulated in the Tower’s well over its forty years of neglect.
Since the completion of the restoration, Charlie had served as the sole Clock Keeper, making almost daily trips to the Tower—regardless of weather conditions—for clock calibration, repairs and general maintenance.
If that 2010 visit to the Clock Tower were to be my only trip up to the Ayer Mill Clock Tower, I would have been very happy. The resulting images were everything I had hoped for.
I didn’t know it at the time, but it wouldn’t be my only visit.
A Portrait Session
Had my 2010 visit to the Clock Tower been my only trip up to the Ayer Mill Clock Tower, I would have been very happy. The resulting images were everything I had hoped for. I didn’t know it at the time, but there would be more.
Charlie Waite
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Nose Gunner View
The nose gunner in a B-17 Flying Fortress was one of the most critical and vulnerable positions on the aircraft. Stationed at the very front of the bomber, he was responsible for defending against head-on attacks—the most dangerous assault angle German fighters could take during World War II.
The nose gunner operated machine guns to protect the plane from frontal attack, aided in aiming and releasing bombs through the Norden bombsight, and coordinated with the naviogator, who sometimes operated the “cheek” guns on the sides of the nose during combat
Fate
Two years after its visit to Beverly Airport, this specific B-17G crashed after takeoff at Bradley International Airport in Connecticut during a Wings of Freedom event. Seven people were killed.
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