Littlefield Building Town Clock - Austin, TX
N 30° 16.090 W 097° 44.557
14R E 620949 N 3349170
Possibly the oldest town clock in Austin, TX, the Littlefield Building town clock gives testimony to the elegance and details to which George Littlefield paid in building his famous office building and bank on Congress Ave, Austin, TX, in 1910.
Waymark Code: WMHZP6
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 09/01/2013
Views: 3
George Littlefield, one of the largest donors to the University of Texas, Austin, made his money in ranching and cattle. He made enough money to open his own bank, the American National Bank, on the first floor of the Littlefield Building he built in 1910. The Littlefield Building was originally an 8-story building with a rooftop garden when it opened, but after three years, the garden was enclosed within the additional ninth floor. This extra floor made the Littlefield Building the tallest skyscraper between New Orleans and San Francisco, at least for a short time. An innovation that made to the American National Bank was that it had a lady's banking department that catered to women who wanted to manage their own wealth. This was an innovation ahead of its time but made the bank popular with women with money to invest. The building is still in active use as a center of commerce and as a bank.
There are two entrances into the building. The main entrance is at 601 Congress Avenue in Austin, TX and the freestanding town clock is mounted in the sidewalk along Congress Ave, just north of the main entrance at the corner of Congress Ave. and 6th Street intersect. There is a side entrance (with no clock) at 106 E. 6th Street.
This town clock is made of cast iron that is painted green. It has the classic 8 foot pole support holding the clockworks and double faced clocks above the pedestrian traffic passing on the sidewalk. The casing surrounding the clocks is also metal painted green, but above and below each clock face is a bronze inset with "Littlefield" arching across the top of the clocks and "Building" curved beneath each clock face. Both clock faces are white with black Roman Numerals I - XII showing the hour designations. There are small black circles between each Roman Numeral that indicate the minute position of the minute hand's rotation. The hands are ornate black metal that are flattened and sport sculpted curves along the arms of both hour hand and minute hand. One clock faces northward toward the State Capitol grounds while the opposing clock faces southward toward the expansion of Austin's now historic downtown area. Both clocks are working and appear to be keeping accurate time.
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