Bellaire High School Clock Tower / Central School Clock Tower and Bell

Side A: The Bellaire High School Clock Tower was erected in 1925 as the second town clock to be mounted on Bellaire’s public schools. C.W. Bates of Wheeling designed this tower, built by C.D. Keyser & Co. of Bellaire. The school building stretches 256 feet along 35th Street, and the tower rises 40 feet above the 3rd floor parapet of the roof. The clock faces are 6 feet, 7 inches in diameter. At the exterior corners of the bell room are 11 foot columns. The tower dome is painted red. E. Howard & Co. of Boston made the clock works and the McShane Bell Foundry of Baltimore cast the bell in August 1888. The BHS Alumni Association lighted the tower in 1998 to honor all “faithful and true-hearted” graduates of the school. Side B: The first clock tower sat atop the old Central School (Union School) built in 1871 which stood at the corner of 35th and Guernsey Streets. Architect J.W. Yost of Bellaire designed the school. It was 85 x 90 feet and had four floors and a mansard roof, above which rose the clock tower. The fourth floor was an auditorium and public meeting room. A fire in 1887 partially destroyed the clock tower, but it was reconstructed soon thereafter. This fire destroyed the tower’s bell, which bore the names of the school board members when the school was built. The bell was replaced in 1888 and it now rings today in the current Bellaire High School clock tower.