Qualla: Baxter Clock https://qualla.com/baxter-clock en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:07 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/d/q/1/p/baxter-clock-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Baxter Clock https://qualla.com/baxter-clock Baxter Clock: Introduction https://qualla.com/baxter-clock/ Photo credit Tradewinds, CC BY-SA 3.0. On the morning of May 6, 1977, a salvage crane swung the Baxter Clock off its pedestal, and then dropped it. Twenty feet of cast-iron casing, brass and steel works, four glass clock faces, a copper pendulum, and a Corinthian column shattered onto the Pollock Street sidewalk. Benny and Della Baxter, who had hired the crane to repair the damage a runaway furniture truck had done the night before, watched their family heirloom disintegrate. Dabney Coddington, curator at nearby Tryon Palace, summed it up for the New Bern Sun Journal: "That block of Pollock Street really looks naked, believe me." The clock would stay broken in a jewelry-store basement for fourteen years. Then New Bern decided to put it back together.

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Image: Tradewinds | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/q/1/p/baxter-clock-wp/dq1p-baxter-clock-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Baxter Clock: An Old-Fashioned Object, Newly Made https://qualla.com/baxter-clock/ Photo credit Tradewinds, CC BY-SA 3.0. Seth Thomas Clock Company of Thomaston, Connecticut, cast the Baxter Clock in 1920, though its design - lions with iron rings in their mouths, Corinthian capitals trimmed in fern palmettes, fluted columns and arabesque crockets - belonged to the late 19th century. By 1920, the er...

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Image: Tradewinds | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/q/1/p/baxter-clock-wp/dq1p-baxter-clock-an-old-fashioned-object-newly-made.mp3 0:06 2 full Baxter Clock: The Day It Fell https://qualla.com/baxter-clock/ Photo credit Tradewinds, CC BY-SA 3.0. On May 5, 1977, a furniture truck backed into the pedestal hard enough to bend it. The Baxters acted fast. The next morning, a salvage company arrived to lift the clock off cleanly so it could be repaired. The cast-iron casing came up. The cable slipped. The clock fell. The casin...

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Image: Tradewinds | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/q/1/p/baxter-clock-wp/dq1p-baxter-clock-the-day-it-fell.mp3 0:06 3 full Baxter Clock: Swiss Bear's Resurrection Project https://qualla.com/baxter-clock/ Photo credit Tradewinds, CC BY-SA 3.0. In 1990, the Swiss Bear Downtown Development Corporation - a non-profit named for the Bernese coat of arms that gave New Bern its symbol - took on the clock as a restoration project. The Baxter family transferred ownership on the condition that it actually be restored. Swiss Bear...

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Image: Tradewinds | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/q/1/p/baxter-clock-wp/dq1p-baxter-clock-swiss-bears-resurrection-project.mp3 0:06 4 full Baxter Clock: What It Still Tells https://qualla.com/baxter-clock/ Photo credit Tradewinds, CC BY-SA 3.0. Today the building behind the clock houses Baxters 1892, a jazz club and bar. The Pollock Street block has changed and rearranged itself many times since 1930. The clock has not. Its four faces still carry the same lettering - BAXTER THE JEWELER, DR. J.O. BAXTER EYESIGHT SPECIALI...

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Image: Tradewinds | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/q/1/p/baxter-clock-wp/dq1p-baxter-clock-what-it-still-tells.mp3 0:06 5 full