Photo – Winnsboro’s clock tower, the country’s longest-running clock<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
By Tom Poland, A Southern Writer<\/em> In my journeys across the South, Georgialina, in particular, I take note of clock towers, watchtowers, and steeples. How can I not. They command the eye. They set me to thinking. I’ve written many times about old windmills and fire towers but of late towers and steeples catch my eye, and let me tell you, a prison watchtower, a church steeple, and two clock towers have stories to tell.<\/p>\n Down in Charleston, St. Michaels’s Church steeple stands 186 feet high, but it stood higher before the 1886 earthquake dropped it eight inches. Lots of tremors in the Palmetto state these days. I fear a big one soon. Will it drop some more?<\/p>\n In Columbia, before they tore down old CCI, the Central Correction Institute, I would drive by the watchtower near the Congaree River. I’d spot the guard, armed as he was. And of what did I think? Bob Dylan. He gave us “All Along The Watchtower,” a pretty fine song, but not Bob’s version. Jimi Hendrix covered the song in a powerful way. When Dylan heard Jimi Hendrix’s version, he said, “It’s Jimi’s song now.” And it is.<\/p>\n Over in Camden, South Carolina’s oldest inland city, you’ll see the King Haigler clock tower. The historic Camden Clock Tower, located at the corner of Broad and Rutledge Streets, dominates the Camden skyline. Built around 1886, the century-old tower features an 1826 weather vane honoring Chief Haigler, a Catawba Nation leader who protected the city’s early pioneers by promoting peace and buffering against hostile tribes.<\/p>\n The clock tower will soon form the centerpiece of a new hotel. As I write, one of the Indigo Boutique hotels is taking shape around the old tower. The $22 million, 51-room hotel project is expected to be completed in 2027.<\/p>\n In Winnsboro, you’ll see a record-setting clock that came from France to Charleston in the 1830s. Fifty wagons hauled the works from Charleston to Winnsboro. The clock has run continuously for 100 years, making it the longest continuously running clock in the United States. Men rung the tower bell, also made in France, to announce the arrival of fresh meat, an old custom in many places.<\/p>\n In 1895 two fellows rang the bell to sound a fire alarm. Their enthusiastic ringing inflicted damage and off the bell went to the J. McShane bell foundry in Philadelphia for repairs. Shipped back to Winnsboro and rung, residents missed the silver tone, prompting rumors that the foundry had sent back a different bell. It struck noon for me Sunday . . . sounded pretty good to this first-time listener.<\/p>\n I love to hear old steeple bells ring and old clock towers toll. They please the eye, they please the ear. In my hometown of Lincolnton, Georgia, when the old courthouse clock strikes noon Wednesdays, twelve notes mean it’s time to close shop. Closed Wednesdays … a tradition in jeopardy.<\/p>\n I see a good many clocks built into courthouse towers and that’s a clock you better sync up with if you’re to appear in court. Be on time or do time. But let’s not think about incarceration. Let’s think inspiration. I hope something inspires new developers to bring us more of these classic eye-catching towers.<\/p>\n Whether they do or not, you’ll see new towers aplenty, cell towers, but they don’t sport a classic old clock. If you need to know the time, your phone will tell you, but it lacks a certain touch of class. It won’t call you to worship, announce the arrival of food, or tell you when to take the day off. Nor, I doubt, will you photograph its uncomely confederate, the cell tower. Photo – Winnsboro’s clock tower, the country’s longest-running clock By Tom Poland, A Southern WriterTomPoland.net In my journeys across the South, Georgialina, in particular, I take note of clock towers, watchtowers, and steeples. How can I not. They command the eye. They set me to thinking. I’ve written many timesContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8734,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[56],"tags":[983,940],"class_list":["entry","author-john-griggs","post-8733","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-columns","tag-a-southern-writer","tag-tom-poland"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/gpstrianglenews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Winnsboro-Clock-Tower_2026_630x350.jpg?fit=630%2C350&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpstrianglenews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8733","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpstrianglenews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpstrianglenews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpstrianglenews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpstrianglenews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8733"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gpstrianglenews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8733\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpstrianglenews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpstrianglenews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpstrianglenews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpstrianglenews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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