Helping Hands

You’ve heard the old adage: even a broken clock is right twice a day. The hands of the clock on the tower of the Sisters of the Holy Cross’s Center Building in Notre Dame haven’t moved since the 1960s, but a new initiative is underway to restore both the tower and its historic clock.

The Sisters of the Holy Cross, a Catholic congregation of religious women, arrived in South Bend in 1843 and founded Saint Mary’s College a year later. The campus — which includes both the Sisters of the Holy Cross General Administration and Saint Mary’s College — is adjacent to the University of Notre Dame. If you’ve visited Saint Mary’s campus, you may have missed the Center Building. It was constructed in 1888 as an early administration building for the Sisters of the Holy Cross, sited prominently at the end of a long straight drive from the campus’s main entrance. Today, it sits behind a later Neoclassical building constructed in the early twentieth century.

For decades, the Center Building’s four-faced tower clock kept students on schedule. Originally driven by a system of weights, the clock was connected to an electric motor in the 1930s. At first, a mechanical rope-pulling device swung the bell to mark the time, replaced in 1949 by a double-hammer mechanism still in operation today. Though the clock’s timekeeping gears no longer operate, the hammers strike the stationary bell to chime each hour.

Gifted to the sisters in 1843 by Father Moreau (Founder of Holy Cross) and re-cast in 1879 (likely due to damage), the bell also tolled for Angelus, funerals, and community celebrations. But age and equipment failure have limited its use in recent years.

Earlier this year, the Sisters of the Holy Cross launched a $35,000 campaign to restore Center Building’s tower and clock, including repainting peeling trim, repairing the clock’s and bell’s mechanicals, and installing a new digital controller and wireless remote that will allow the bell to ring at the touch of a button. The clock’s hands and dial faces will be replaced with durable materials, compatible with its historic design.

The project is nearing its fundraising goal and work has already begun, but the Sisters need help to finish the project by the end of the year. For more information and information on how you can support the project, contact Daniel Flowers with the Sisters of the Holy Cross, 574-284-5578, development@cscsisters.org.