The Henry Ford Museum

We have the privilege of being Preservation Consultants for the Henry Ford museum and Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan.  We have worked for them for many years now, doing routine maintenance, repairs and complete preservations on their tower clock collection.  The 1730 Sir Joh Bennett Building and tower clock was originally a 5-story-tall jewelry store in downtown London, England.  It was purchased in  1937, by Henry Ford and moved to the Greenfield Village. The tower clock movement is called a 3-train, time, strike and Westminster chime clock. The large figurines Gog and Magog strike the Westminster bells. The main entrance of the museum is a replica of the Independence hall in Philadelphia. The #16 1929 Seth Thomas auto wind tower clock mechanism was purchased by Henry Ford in 1929. In 2017 we were hired to do a complete preservation of this historic clock. The #16 Seth Thomas was disassembled into 827 individual pieces. We cleaned, repaired and replaced parts on the clock and found that the pendulum rod was made of a special alloy, to prevent expansion and contraction, called INVAR. This keeps the clock in perfect time summer and winter. A very rare and beautiful tower clock.