Historic Memorial Clock Tower restored at Hillsborough High School in Tampa
TAMPA, Fla. - The Historic Memorial Clock Tower at Hillsborough High School in Tampa will be rededicated this Saturday in a ceremony beginning at 11 a.m.
Hillsborough High is one of the oldest and most beautiful schools in the Tampa Bay area, but what you may not know is that the school's 100-foot tower has a name of it's own.
The Memorial Clock Tower takes students like 17-year-old Steeler Petrocky back in time.
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"It's very important to our school's culture, and we always turn toward the clock when we sing our alma mater," said Petrocky.
When FOX 13 first visited last year, we discovered a tarnished plaque at the base of the tower with names on it.
"It's 143 students that died in four years of World War II, and they were all mostly teenagers," said Janice Voght, who worked as a school nurse at Hillsborough High for more than 20 years.
Years after the war ended – in 1949 – hundreds of people attended the dedication of the Memorial Clock Tower. It chimed the hour until it finally wore out. We're not sure exactly when.
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"I graduated in 1986, but when I was here it wasn't really chiming, and I really never knew about the chimes," said alumnus Darlene Fabelo.
On FOX 13's climb up to see the tower last May, what we found at the top wasn't pretty.
The speakers were ancient and the clock was frozen, but the clock tower's state of disrepair must have struck a chord.
Fabelo and a group of fellow alumni raised $50,000 in just five weeks for the restoration of the clock tower. They installed a new, electronic, programmable carillon, new speakers and a new clock mechanism.
The Hillsborough County school district built new stairs up through the tower, replacing those old and rickety ladders . Now, the clock is running and the long quiet chimes are ready to ring out again.
"When it chimes we want everyone to remember the ones who sacrificed their lives for us," said Fabelo.
And that tarnished plaque at the base of the tower has been brilliantly restored, so the names of the fallen soldiers from Hillsborough High will always be visible at the base of the Memorial Clock Tower.
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