Council accepts city manager recommendation to relocate historic clock tower for new joint government center

Spartanburg City Council accepted the city manager’s recommendation on Sept. 22 to relocate the existing Morgan Square clock tower and return the original clockworks and bell to a new, larger clock tower that will be a feature of the joint City–County administrative building.

City Manager Chris Story told the council the clockworks and bell date to 1881 and that the staff recommendation is intended to restore the historical relationship between the municipal seat and the town clock. “The clockworks and bell date back to 1881,” Story said during his presentation, describing earlier moves of the mechanism and the community effort that erected the current tower decades ago.

Many residents urged the council instead to preserve the existing freestanding tower in place or to relocate it nearby. Dr. Bridal Price, a longtime local historian and former Morgan Square Enhancement Committee member, urged the council to retain and “include the correct history of the bell,” saying the earlier bells signaled a curfew for enslaved people in the town’s past. “The bells on Morgan Square before the clock tower... were needed to signal curfew time for the 800 or more enslaved,” Price said.

Residents expressed a mix of preservation, historical and safety arguments. Dozens of speakers described the clock as an icon used in tourism and civic branding; one speaker said a petition opposing removal had 2,788 signatures. Others supported the relocation to enable a larger, more visible landmark and to integrate the historic clockworks and bell into a publicly accessible display at the new government center. The manager’s slide images show the proposed new tower nearly twice the height of the current structure and as the primary monumental element on a redeveloped Main Street frontage that staff said is part of about $300 million in private investment nearby.

Story told council that physically relocating the existing tower is possible but costly; staff estimated relocation would cost approximately $850,000–$900,000 depending on foundation and site conditions. He said staff identified three potential alternative downtown sites but noted each is a parcel that could be redeveloped in the future, which could leave a relocated clock vulnerable to later moves. For those reasons staff recommended retaining the historic clockworks and bell as part of the new joint government center’s clock tower and providing public access to the clockworks and bell in the facility plaza.

Council members debated options including full relocation, placing the clockworks inside a glass display inside the new building, and siting the clock on the building’s exterior plaza so it would be accessible evenings and weekends. One council motion accepted the city manager’s recommendation; the mayor announced the motion carried 4–2. The transcript records a motion, second and a “4 to 2” result; individual yea/nay roll-call names were not included in the recorded excerpt.

Staff noted that if council directed relocation instead, it would require funding and likely a reduction in planned investment in the principal part of Morgan Square to cover relocation costs. Story said the plaza of the joint government center could accommodate an exterior display of the clockworks and bell so the public could view them when the building is closed. The council accepted staff’s recommendation and directed staff to proceed with the planning process consistent with that recommendation.