After years of restoration, the 118-year-old Colman Clock has returned to the lobby of the Seattle Ferry Terminal. Before the waterfront redevelopment, the clock was sent to Bainbridge Island, to the Eagle Harbor repair shop. There, specialists restored its frame, Woodbay repaired the historic dial and its components, and clockmaker George Pease refurbished the inner workings. The work stretched over several years, partly because it took time to find the right specialist for the complex restoration.
The clock was installed in 1908 atop a 72-foot tower at Colman Dock, then a hub for ferry service. In 1912, the steamship Alameda crashed into the dock, and the tower collapsed into Puget Sound with the clock. It was recovered the next day, its hands stopped at 10:23. After it was reinstalled, the clock was removed in 1936 as obsolete and spent about 40 years gathering dust in storage. In 1985, it was returned to the dock, where it remained until redevelopment began in the late 2010s. Over the years, the clock witnessed many changes in Seattle, from the construction of the Smith Tower and the Space Needle to the opening and closure of the Kingdome.
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