The ornate cast-iron sidewalk clock at 200 Fifth Avenue, standing about twelve feet tall with scrollwork framing its face, a street advertisement since 1909.
200 Fifth Avenue Sidewalk Clock
The twelve-foot cast-iron clock on this corner was an advertisement for toys. That sounds strange now, standing next to a Tiffany store, but from 1909 until late in the twentieth century, the building at 200 Fifth Avenue was the center of the American toy industry. Hundreds of manufacturers kept permanent showrooms inside, and every season, buyers from across the country walked through its doors to place orders. Someone decided a giant ornamental clock on the sidewalk would catch their eye on the way up Fifth Avenue. It worked.
Sidewalk clocks like this were once everywhere in New York. Jewelers and watchmakers planted them outside their shops the way barber poles marked a haircut. At their peak, hundreds stood across the city. Fewer than a dozen survive today.
The toy companies eventually moved on. When Tiffany & Co. took over the building in 2011, they restored the clock as part of the renovation, refinishing the ironwork and repairing the mechanism. Most sidewalk clocks that lasted this long did so by accident or neglect. This one survived because it was always attached to a building worth caring about, and each new tenant had a reason to keep it running.
Check the face. The mechanism still runs and keeps accurate time, restored by Tiffany in 2011. The decorative scrollwork at the base was refinished at the same time.