Colgate Clock (New Jersey)

Coordinates: 40°42′43.3″N 74°02′02″W / 40.712028°N 74.03389°W / 40.712028; -74.03389

The Colgate Clock is an octagonal clock facing the Hudson River near Exchange Place in Jersey City, New Jersey, United States, with a diameter of 50 feet (15 m).^[1] It is currently situated 400 meters south of the former site of the headquarters of consumer products conglomerate Colgate-Palmolive, which was until the 1980s based in Jersey City. The clock was maintained by John A. Winters from the 1930s until his retirement in 1976.

Rear view of the Colgate Clock in the Paulus Hook area

Detail

The current Colgate Clock was built in 1924 to replace an earlier clock designed by Colgate engineer Warren Day and constructed by the Seth Thomas Clock Company for the centennial of the Colgate Company in 1906. After the current clock's construction, the earlier clock was relocated to a Colgate factory in Clarksville, Indiana.^[1][2]

As of 2005, the Colgate Clock stands on an otherwise empty lot; all of the other old buildings in the complex were demolished in 1985, when Colgate left New Jersey. The lot is located on the Hudson River waterfront and the clock itself is 100 meters south of the Goldman Sachs Tower, the largest skyscraper in the state of New Jersey. The construction of that building in the early 2000s forced a relocation of the clock southward to its current location. At the time of the relocation the size of the Colgate advertisement attached to it was reduced to comply with the Hudson River No Billboard law. As a part of the relocation agreement Goldman Sachs now maintains the clock.

Appearances

• The clock can be seen from across the Hudson River 31 minutes into the 2006 film Inside Man, when characters played by Jodie Foster and Christopher Plummer have a conversation on the western edge of Manhattan.

See also

• Colgate Clock (Indiana)

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Gray, Christopher (July 17, 1988). "The Colgate Clock; Winding Down to a Move for a Jersey City Beacon". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/1988/07/17/realestate/streetscapes-the-colgate-clock-winding-down-to-a-move-for-a-jersey-city-beacon.html. Retrieved November 27, 2010. 
2. ^ Lyons, Richard D. (July 9, 1989). "Jersey City Landmark; Now It's Time to Move the Colgate Clock". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/1989/07/09/realestate/postings-jersey-city-landmark-now-it-s-time-to-move-the-colgate-clock.html. Retrieved November 27, 2010. 

• New Jersey City University Jersey City Past and Present

External links

• Colgate Clock
• New Yorker 1957