After nearly a year sitting in storage, Spartanburg’s most-traveled civic artifact is getting a permanent home — and this time, it’s designed to be walked through, not just admired from a passing car.
City Council voted 6-1 Monday night to place a newly designed clock tower at the entrance to Barnet Park, the northeast-corner greenspace that has anchored downtown concerts and festivals for more than two decades. The decision ends a months-long public debate over whether the structure should go to Barnet Park or be rebuilt near the county courthouse.
At the center of the tower will be the 1881 bell — a piece of cast iron that has outlasted every building it ever occupied. It was originally hung in the first structure to house City Council, then moved to the 1895 Spartanburg County Courthouse, then spent two decades in storage after that courthouse was demolished in 1958. A downtown revitalization effort in the late 1970s brought it back as a freestanding tower on the original Main Street Mall, built in part with money donated by Spartanburg schoolchildren and their families. When the mall was scrapped and East Main was reopened in 1989, the tower moved west to a traffic island on West Main Street, where it stood until its removal late last year to make room for new streetscaping.
The new structure is designed differently than any version that came before it. Rather than a monument viewed from a distance, city staff described it as a gateway — a colonnaded archway with warm exposed brickwork and visible belfry, positioned so that entering Barnet Park means physically passing under the bell. A promenade will connect the tower to the Zimmerli Amphitheater stage. The names of those who funded the 1970s tower will be displayed on the walls of that passage.
The clock tower proposal is part of a larger Barnet Park upgrade that includes a new steel canopy for the amphitheater stage — replacing the original vinyl roof installed at the park’s 2001 opening, which has reached the end of its 25-year life — along with upgraded professional sound and lighting infrastructure, a new loading dock, and remodeled performer green rooms. The upgrades draw on a combination of private funding and public commitment, according to city staff.
City officials noted the new design draws inspiration from 19th-century civic architecture in Spartanburg, featuring arched gateways and a visible belfry where the bell will once again ring. The city is accepting public comments on the design and location through email at [email protected] for three weeks from Monday’s vote.
The one dissenting vote was not publicly explained during Monday’s session. No construction timeline or cost estimate was released at the meeting.
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Glad the bell is finally getting a proper home after all these years. My kids walked under that old tower on West Main every day going to school. Barnet Park feels right — people will actually interact with it.
The idea of walking through the tower to enter the park is exactly the kind of civic design Spartanburg needs more of. Not just a monument you drive past.
Anyone else remember when the schoolchildren fundraised for the 1970s tower? My mother contributed. Nice that those names will be on the wall of the new one.
I wanted it near the courthouse to keep it closer to its original governmental context, but I understand the council decision. At least it will get foot traffic at Barnet.
Combined with the new amphitheater canopy, Barnet Park is going to be a completely different venue in two or three years. This is a big deal for downtown events.
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