It’s only fitting the clock stopped this week.
Damariscotta’s historic town clock, famously housed in the steeple of the First Baptist Church on Bristol Road and Main Street, ran down and stopped Tuesday morning, Oct. 16 at 9:50 a.m.
It should stay stopped, for a little while at least. Whether it should or not, it likely will because for the first time in decades, Damariscotta’s clock tender, John A. Andrews won’t be making the long, nerve wracking climb up into the steeple to wind it anymore.
Andrews slipped this mortal coil Oct. 9. He was 76.
For as long as anyone can remember, which is to say at least 30 years or so, Andrews climbed the steeple, once every six days or so, to wind the clock. He did it the way he did everything, quietly, meticulously.
Without fanfare, week after week, year after year, Andrews kept the clock running. On nights when daylight savings time required a time change Andrews would wait until 2 a.m. Sunday, the traditional time for effecting the change, before he would reset the clock.
Steadiness seems to have been Andrews’ attribute.
For years Andrews also raised and lowered the American flag that once stood in the intersection of Main Street and Bristol Road, morning and night, until The First bank finally installed a light on their flagpole.
He worked for The First in Damariscotta for 47 years and up until recently, he was the projectionist for the Lincoln Theater in Damariscotta.
However, it was as the town clock tender that Andrews was probably best known even if, for many people at large, his role remained largely unknown.
Between 2007, when the clock came down so the steeple could be renovated, until 2010, when after a long capital campaign, the clock and the steeple were restored to their rightful place, many people commented on the clock, the steeple and what the view meant to them and to the town.
It’s doubtful that many of those same people ever stopped to wonder who wound it or how it got wound. In one sense, the fact no one ever worried could be construed as taking Andrews’ efforts for granted.
We prefer to look at it the other way. The fact that nobody had to worry about the clock is a testament to Andrews’ reliability and how seriously he took his responsibility.
The good people of Damariscotta purchased their clock in 1888. Many people have had their turn tending the clock over the years and someone will no doubt come forward to tend to it in the years ahead.
However long that clock sits there though, it its unlikely anyone will do it as long and as well as John Andrews, a kind and gentle man.
Thank you, John.
