Plaque Dedicated at the Historic Pelhamwood Clock Tower

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The Village of Pelham honored the late Helen Leale Harper Jr. by dedicating a plaque in her memory on Saturday, November 5, 2005. A group led by Village Mayor Michael Clain unveiled the plaque at the base of the historic Pelhamwood Clock Tower on Harmon Place near the Pelham Train Station.

Postcard View of the Pelhamwood Clock
Tower in 1910.

The Pelhamwood Clock Tower was among the earliest structures -- though not the earliest -- built in the neighborhood known as Pelhamwood by Clifford B. Harmon & Co. The company took possession of the land on which it built the clock tower shortly before January 31, 1909. Although the precise date the company completed the clock tower is unknown, it had been built by 1910. Clifford B. Harmon & Co. built the tower and a number of gates marking the boundaries of Pelhamwood to attract buyers to the new subdivision near the Pelham train station.

For many years Helen Leal Harper Jr., a resident of Harmon Avenue near the clock tower, cared for the structure as an unpaid volunteer. She tended flowers and plants at the base of the tower and paid costs for upkeep of the tower out of her own pocket. She died in March of this year.

At 2:00 p.m. on November 5, a group gathered at the base of the tower to dedicate a plaque in Miss Harper's honor. Miss Harper's cousin, Virginia Brookins, attended the ceremony. The plaque reads: "IN MEMORY OF HELEN HARPER 'CLOCK TOWER KEEPER' ~ IN APPRECIATION FOR ALL YOU HAVE DONE". Photographs of the plaque appear immediately below.

Photograph of Plaque on its Pedestal Taken
on November 13, 2005.

To read more about the ceremony, see Helen Harper Plaque Dedication at Clock Tower, The Pelham Weekly, Vol. XIV, No. 44, Nov. 11, 2005, p. 13, col. 2.

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