Places – General Office
Standing the test of time for 100 Years
Discover the rich history and enduring legacy of Kohler Co.’s iconic clock tower and main office headquarters, a centerpiece of the Village of Kohler for over a century.
Humble Beginnings of Headquarters
In 1900, Kohler Co. moved its manufacturing plants and administrative offices from the port city of Sheboygan to the rural community of Riverside. The move, only about 4 miles, was a bold and brilliant venture. Instead of competing for space and resources in the bustling city, company founder John Michael Kohler envisioned a community development which could evolve and grow around the company campus. Some 25 years later, the main office headquarters would be built at the center of Kohler campus.
The Main Office Takes Shape
Construction for the Kohler Co. office building started in May 1924. The new building at the time would be situated on High Street, which would eventually become Highland Drive, directly opposite The American Club.
The office headquarters were constructed of reinforced concrete, surfaced with red vitreous face brick. The floor construction used what was known as a hollow pan system, designed for flexible use in running conduits and cables without destroying permanent walls. The office was completed in July of 1925 after a full year of construction.
The Iconic Clock Tower
The building measures 211 feet long, 65 feet wide, and 110 feet from the ground to the top of the tower. It has, as the picture below shows, three full stories, plus a semi-exposed basement floor. The fourth floor is 60 feet square. Rising above the fourth floor is the iconic clock tower. The large clock with four dials, one on each side of the tower, is visible throughout the Village. The clock faces are 9.5 feet in diameter. The original hour markers were made of bronze and the clock hands were made of wood. The huge bronze bell, weighing approximately 2,000 lbs., hangs in the tower and strikes the hours.
Never Stopped Ticking and Always Accurate
The clock in the tower was manufactured by the Seth Thomas Clock Company and is one of just three such models in the country, automatically wound by electricity and guaranteed accurate as its synched to a universal master clock. From the day the tower clock and sonorous bell were installed, an impressive 622,368 hours (about 71 years) passed and rung out before the clock and bell were halted for a planned restoration project in 1996.
Proudly Refurbished by Associates and Local Artisans
In the fall of 1996, a team of Kohler Co. associates and local contractors worked proudly to refurbish the clock’s worn and weathered parts. Associates in the Service Machine Department built entirely new gear mechanisms. They dismantled each mechanism and used the components as patterns to create duplicate parts. Then, each new duplicate gear mechanism was reassembled and reinstalled. Service Machine associates also created new linking rods that connected the clock to the 2,000-pound bell suspended above it. Other associates in the Metal Pattern Department created duplicate hands made of long-lasting aluminum to replace the old wooden ones. And the Construction Department welded reinforcements to each hand to ensure they would not bend in high winds.
Before reinstallation, the hands, along with the clock faces, were transported to Conrad Schmitt Studios in New Berlin, Wisconsin, less than an hour drive from the Village of Kohler, where skilled artisans painstakingly applied delicate 23-karat gold leaf gilding to the clock. Conrad Schmitt is one of the best restoration firms in the country, having refurbished the White House Visitor’s Center in Washington, D.C., the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City, and the historic Pabst Theater in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. For Bernard Gruenke, Chairman at Conrad Schmitt, working on the clock was his way of repaying the Kohler family for a favor bestowed upon him more than 50 years prior. In 1930, Marie Kohler, a daughter of John Michael Kohler, provided financial support to Gruenke and other young artists from Sheboygan High School to visit the art museums of Washington, D.C. where he studied galleries that eventually inspired him to pursue a career in handcrafted arts.
Standing the Test of Time
Since 1996, the clock tower has undergone routine maintenance but nothing like the deep refurbishment that took place 25 years ago. Today, the main office and its iconic clock tower continue to serve as a centerpiece to the Village of Kohler, Kohler Co. Wisconsin campus, and the now-global company headquarters.
