For more than a decade, a century-old Sessions Regulator clock has ticked away time on the classroom wall at the Museum at Central School in Kalispell.
But on Nov. 12, the clock began a long-awaited journey home when the Northwest Montana Historical Society, which operates the Museum at Central School, donated it to the Paradise Elementary School Preservation Committee. The committee is a grassroots effort that is trying to preserve Paradise’s recently shuttered schoolhouse.
Executive Director Gil Jordan said the clock was placed inside the classroom back in 2002 when the museum was trying to recreate what a school would look like in the 1890s. According to Montana state law, every classroom must have five things: a clock, Montana and American flags, and photos of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, although Jordan notes it’s likely a rarely enforced code.
Gene and Dorothy McGlenn, who were given the clock in the 1970s by a family friend, had donated it to the museum a decade ago. How the family friend had acquired the clock is unknown, but what is known is that it had been used at the Paradise Elementary School in the early 1900s.
Earlier this year when members of the Paradise preservation committee came to Kalispell to visit the museum, some of them recognized the clock and a few joked that they should bring it back home with them. But the visit got Jordan thinking, and a few weeks later he talked to the museum board about returning the clock.
“It’s unusual for a museum to give away a valuable artifact like this but there was no hesitation by the board about getting that clock back to its original home,” Jordan said. “It means more to them.”
The decision to donate the old clock to the Paradise group came at about the same time someone donated the old clock from the Kalispell Post Office to the Central School. Now Jordan says both groups have clocks that have more historical meaning to their areas.
The clock was exchanged during a small ceremony on the steps of the Central School on Nov. 11. From there the Paradise group will take it home where they hope to eventually put it on display inside the old school.
The Paradise school shut down in 2013 and its final five students began to attend class in nearby Plains. The preservation committee got together soon after and hope to preserve the school as a visitor and community center. A feasibility study will begin in January, thanks to a $16,000 grant from the Montana Department of Commerce.
“This clock is helping us connect the past with the future and getting this clock back is going to kick off the school’s new future,” said Karen Thorson, one of the preservation committee members.
For more information about the Paradise school project visit www.paradiseschoolproject.com. For more information about the Museum at Central School visit www.yourmuseum.org.