Family preserves a piece of school history

 In News

A clock salvaged from the old school annex years ago has been donated to Nottawasaga and Creemore Public School by someone with deep ties to the school community.
Although the clock is not in working order, it will be a valued addition to the growing collection of memorabilia from Creemore school predecessors which on are display in the front foyer.
The clock has been donated by Merle MacDonald, an education assistant at the school. It was her father, Thomas Montgomery, who retrieved it out of a dumpster back when all the old clocks were being replaced at the former NCPS annex on Caroline St. Thomas Montgomery was a custodian at the school for 30 years, including his time after the new school was built. His wife June also worked there as a custodian for 10 years. All four of their daughters went through the school and all of them ended up working in the school system.
The silent clock hung on the wall in their rec room all these years.
It is a Preston model made by the Arthur Pequegnat Clock Company in Kitchener between 1904 and about 1941, until a brass shortage caused by the Second World War forced the clock factory to close.
The same model once hung at the front of every classroom in the old building until they were replaced with electric ones.
School principal Mark McCain said his hope is to restore the clock to good working order and hang it in the foyer alongside the weathervane and the bell salvaged from the annex, and former Creemore Continuation School, and other cherished objects that celebrate the school’s history in the community.
Anyone with knowledge of the clock or a lead on how to have it restored is welcome to get in touch at mmccain@scdsb.on.ca.

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