Sidewalk Clock (783 5th Avenue)

History and architecture

One of the most important and essential parts of New York's historical fabric is its "street furniture" -- lamp posts, street clocks, sign posts, and benches that enhance and maintain the intimacy and scale of neighborhood blocks. Perhaps the most striking of these street amenities are the oversize cast-iron post or sidewalk clocks that proudly dominate city sidewalks. These clocks proliferated in American cities well after the turn of the twentieth century but many have since fallen prey to automobile accidents and sidewalk ordinances. One of the few that exists in New York today is the clock at No. 783 Fifth Avenue.

Introduced in the 1860s, cast-iron street clocks were popular both as everyday conveniences and as novel advertising devices. A small business concern that stayed in the same location year after year would buy a street clock and install it directly in front of the store, often painting the name of the business onto the clock face. When the business owners moved, they usually took their clocks with them. Readily available from catalogues for about 600 dollars, street clocks were manufactured by several clock companies.