Former Holland City State Bank
The Holland Tower and Clock
In 1892, construction began on the landmark Tower Clock building. That building, along with Graves Hall and Winants Chapel at Hope College, were built of Waverly stone mined from the Waverly Stone quarry just east of Holland, along the Black River.
The Tower Clock Building was built on the lot containing the burned down remains of Manly D. Howard’s landmark home. He and he family would never rebuild on that location, instead moving across the Black River. Howard Avenue is named after him.
The clock in the Tower Clock Building was built by John Raven, a 26-year-old jeweler from Hartford, Mich, so “men wouldn’t be late for work.” Apparently he wasn't kidding about the reason for the clock: he sought donations from surrounding merchants and factories, including the Cappon-Bertsch Leather Co., located down the hill where the Civic Center stands today.
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Tower Clock Plaque states:
Tower Clock
190 South River Avenue
Originally the Holland City State Bank
this Victorian Romanesque structure
was built in 1892, under the leadership
of J. Van Putten, bank president. The
arcaded block was an architectural form
often used to anchor business districts
of the late 1800s. Made of locally
quarried Waverly Stone, the building
including its clock, was thoroughly
renovated in the mid-1980s and
continues to be a focal point
of 8th Street.
Arcade (Architecture)
An arcade is a succession of contiguous arches, with each arch supported by a colonnade of columns or piers. Exterior arcades are designed to provide a sheltered walkway for pedestrians. The walkway may be lined with retail stores. An arcade may feature arches on both sides of the walkway. Alternatively, a blind arcade superimposes arcading against a solid wall. Blind arcades are a feature of Romanesque architecture that influenced Gothic architecture. In the Gothic architectural tradition, the arcade can be located in the interior, in the lowest part of the wall of the nave, supporting the triforium and the clerestory in a cathedral, or on the exterior, in which they are usually part of the walkways that surround the courtyard and cloisters.
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