HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHTM) – Lawmakers don’t need to worry about their office clocks ever displaying the wrong time inside the Capitol building. Bethany Gill winds all of the clocks weekly.
“They are 120 years old, most of them, because they were designed for the Capitol in 1906,” Gill said.
There are 273 clocks spread throughout the Capitol. Gill also oils and cleans them as needed.
“Clock winding is a regular part of my job,” she said. “We wind clocks every week. We have eight-day movements in the Capitol so every seven days we wind them.”
Most of the clocks have been in place since the Capitol was built, some 62 million minutes ago.
“The clocks are just part of why the building’s so unique and so intricate,” Jason Wilson, a historian for the Capitol Preservation Committee, said.
“I think you have to have some sense when you come to the building of what it represents just in terms of an icon of Pennsylvania’s history and government,” Wilson said.
Most of the clocks are mahogany or mahogany stained. The diligent design of the time trackers help Gill enjoy the weekly wind.