Historic clock outside Union Station will be restored

Time will march on for a historic clock that stood outside Union Station for decades but finally succumbed to age.

The pedestal clock that suddenly collapsed in January 2015 will be restored with a $50,000 donation from the Michael J. Rainen Family Foundation, station officials announced Wednesday.

Rainen, a developer, said the clock has personal meaning.

“My wife (Kathy) and I and our families grew up in Kansas City, and Union Station was a memorable part of our childhoods,” Rainen told The Star.

The clock will be moved nearer to Pershing Road when a streetscaping makeover is complete. Rainen’s family will be able to see the clock from a unit he redeveloped in the Pershing Building across from Union Station.

The lamppost clock is older than Union Station, dating to the mid-1880s, when it was built by the E. Howard Clock Co. It stood at the corner of 10th and Main streets and then at 11th Street and Grand Avenue until it was moved to the sidewalk in front of Union Station in 1936.

When the station was renovated in the 1990s, it was determined that the clock’s original workings were too fragile and outdated to be returned to the outdoors. A new mechanism was installed, but the base remained old and the top part broke off, sending the clock crashing to the ground.

The original lead-weight clock mechanism was restored by The Clock Shop of Kansas City and can be seen in working order at the entrance to Science City.

The lamppost clock, with its historic pedestal restored, is expected to be in place at its new location sometime this summer. The streetscaping work is being done in conjunction with a $7.5 million expansion project behind Union Station. It will include an event plaza outside Science City as well as an automobile and pedestrian bridge from the west end of the station to the parking garage.

This story was originally published March 23, 2016 at 5:56 PM with the headline "Historic clock outside Union Station will be restored."