Governor’s Historic Preservation Award

DAVID PEREZ - Last November, the State of California’s Office of Historic Preservation presented the prestigious Governor’s Historic Preservation Award for 2015 to those involved in the Santa Barbara Courthouse Clock Project. Mostyn Gale of NAWCC Chapter 190 spearheaded the effort with fellow chapter members to resurrect this beautiful tower clock. They were instrumental in providing the expertise and many thousands of man-hours needed to successfully accomplish this seemingly insurmountable effort to refurbish, rebuild , modify and fabricate the components and mechanisms for the rare Seth Thomas model 18 tower clock which was built and installed in 1929.

From left to right: Rodney Baker- Santa Barbara Courthouse Legacy Foundation,
Robert Ooley- Santa Barbara County Architect, Maryan Schall- Principal Financial
Support for the Bisno-Schall Clock Gallery, Mostyn Gale- Principal Clock Restorer
and Julianne Polanco- California State Preservation Officer

Reassembly was then completed after many more hours of cleaning, polishing and paint touch-up where necessary while preserving the original workmanship and finish as much as possible. Mostyn and his crew then precisely adjusted the mechanism so that it ran just as it did when new—some would argue better than new. Brian Mumford provided his digital expertise in instrumenting real-time monitoring of the clock’s performance. Philanthropists David and Fay Bisno and Richard and Maryan Schall financed the creation of the Bisno-Schall Clock Gallery in which the clock resides to make it available for public viewing.

Congratulations to all those involved. Well done!

Letter from Julianne Polanco, California State Preservation Officer to
Robert Ooley, Santa Barbara County Architect