Downtown Bowling Green has a new face. Two of them, in fact.

Bowling Green Rotary Club members watched Tuesday as a pedestal clock commemorating the club’s 100th anniversary and made by The Verdin Co. of Cincinnati was set up in front of the Carr, Riggs & Ingram accounting firm at 922 State St.

It was the culmination of months of fundraising and planning and was delayed for several weeks by the coronavirus pandemic, but the antique-looking but high-tech-functioning clock finally took its place near Fountain Square Park.

“It’s very impressive,” Rotary Club member Janette Boehman said as a contractor for The Verdin Co. mounted the clock on the pedestal. “We were hoping to have it done earlier, but we accomplished what we set out to do.”

What they set out to do was purchase the $25,000 analog, two-faced clock and install it as the club’s gift to the city in conjunction with the 100th anniversary of the Bowling Green Rotary Club, which was chartered in September 1920.

The clock, with faces showing the hours in Roman numerals, towers 15 feet high atop a pedestal with a base made of brownish marble imported from India. Engravings on the base, done by Tommy Crow of Scottsville’s T.W. Crow & Son Funeral Home, display the Rotary logo (which is also on the clock faces), the club’s four-way test and a message about the donation to the city.

Altogether, the clock and the pedestal cost about $30,000, which Rotary Club President Alan Palmer said the club was able to raise over about 18 months with donations from club members and the community.

“No government money was involved in this,” Palmer said. “A few members gave $1,000 apiece. We only have one 100th anniversary. We wanted it to be a memorable one for the community.”

Palmer said the city’s public works staff, Scott, Murphy and Daniel Construction and Bowling Green Municipal Utilities were involved in getting the clock installed, with independent contractor Patrick Bradley supervising final installation.

Although the clock has the look and feel of the antique Seth Thomas pedestal clock that had sat on the same spot for more than 70 years, Bradley said it is much more high-tech.

Bradley, who has been installing Virden clocks for 23 years, finished the inner workings – including a mini-computer, a photoelectric cell for the back lighting and a battery backup – of this one Tuesday.

“If the power goes out, it’ll take care of itself,” said Bradley, who is also scheduled to install a Virden clock at Indian Hills Country Club later this year. “The computer will reset the time for Daylight Savings Time. It’s pretty much self-maintaining.”

The clock continues a long tradition of pedestal clocks on State Street.

The Seth Thomas clock it replaces was first placed in front of the J.W. Campbell Jewelry Store at 906 State St. in 1913. It remained there until 1946, when it was purchased by American National Bank and relocated to the sidewalk in front of the bank building at 922 State St.

That clock hadn’t functioned in a few years, so the Rotary Club came up with the idea of replacing it.

Tom Blair, owner of the 922 State St. building, donated the Seth Thomas clock to Warren Fiscal Court. It has been restored to working order and now sits in front of the county courthouse on East 10th Avenue.

Palmer said the Rotary Club will have a formal ceremony later this year to unveil the Virden clock, which he hopes can have a long history as well.

“We’re proud of it,” Palmer said, “and I hope the community will be proud of it for years to come.”

– Follow business reporter Don Sergent on Twitter @BGDNbusiness or visit bgdailynews.com.