During their April 27 meeting, members of Spartanburg City Council voted 6-1 to have the Clock Tower rebuilt at Barnet Park. Rendering Courtesy McMillan Pazdan Smith Architecture
It wasn’t on the agenda for a decision, but at their April 27 meeting, members of Spartanburg City Council unexpectedly voted 6-1 to have the Clock Tower rebuilt at Barnet Park.
The vote came on the heels of a presentation by City Manager Chris Story, and approximately one month after City Council members urged all area residents to send thoughts and input about a possible new location for the tower.
Barnet Park and the site of the new Courthouse led all suggestions: The count was split at 45 resident votes each.
Story addressed not only these two considerations but other ideas, which included Richardson Park, 5th 3rd Park, the Railroad Museum, the corner of Church St. and St. John’s St., and a new spot on Morgan Square where the tower stood until being dismantled in November 2025 to make room for a new $425 million development.
For example, he mentioned that the Railroad Museum is not a prominent location; Morgan Square would no longer allow enough space to rebuild the tower; and that Richardson Park could not be “assured as a safely permanent home.”
As for the Courthouse, this was the first choice of a local organization called Support the Spartanburg Bicentennial Clock Tower Group.
Group leader Kimberly Branch said before the meeting that “we have 288 members who are in favor of rebuilding the Clock Tower at the Courthouse.”
Story, however, while not objecting to the site itself, told the Council that it wouldn’t be possible to just rebuild the tower there because the Courthouse is on County property.
“We simply can’t make a recommendation to act in that direction because you don’t have the legal right to do it,” he said.
He also pointed out that a portion of the Courthouse grounds, about 15,000 square feet on the corner of Library Street, is laid out such as to allow for “a subsequent developed office building.”
“Which to me is wise planning,” he said. “So I can’t in good faith recommend that you petition the county to foreclose on that long-term option.”
Councilwoman Meghan Smith added that conversations with a member of the County Council not only bore out Story’s approach, but revealed that County leaders had no desire to pursue putting the Clock Tower at the Courthouse.
“I believe if County Council wanted to move in that direction, they would have made that very clear before tonight,” Smith said.
And Councilwoman Erica Brown, while casting the lone no vote because “the visibility just isn’t as strong as I would like,” didn’t appear bothered by her colleagues’ and Story’s opposite views.
And when asked by Mayor Jerome Rice what the cost would be to rebuild the tower at any particular site, Story said the pricetag would be the same – about $800,000 – irrespective of location.
“I do think there was a healthy level of support expressed in the public comments for the Barnet Park proposal,” he said. “The bell, with modern lighting, could be more visually prominent than it was in its last home. And Barnet Park, we believe, is unlikely to experience, after this wave of change, anything that would fundamentally re-purpose it.”
