Many people dread daylight saving time, when clocks move forward and millions of people wake up groggy. But not John Pohlpeter.
Twice a year, Pohlpeter and a small group of volunteers trudge up hundreds of creaky, wooden steps to the top of Union Station’s historic clock tower in Portland, where he manually changes the time on the clock’s nearly 130-year-old mechanism.
John Pohlpeter sets the time on the mechanism for the clock at Union Station in Portland on March 9, 2024. Twice a year, he changes the time on the clock for daylight saving time.
Joni Land / OPB
The clock tower has been an icon of Portland’s skyline since the building first opened to the public in 1896. Located behind the clock is what Pohlpeter calls the mechanism, which makes the hour and minute hands work.
It’s a Seth Thomas tower clock, which doesn’t run on electricity or gas, but instead uses gravity to move the hands through a large weight in the corner of the room.
“This is the only one in Portland,” Pohlpeter said as he oiled the machine. “The weights force the clock to operate.”
The mechanism is a large, complicated machine. It’s filled with what looks like a million golden gears and rods, but has a familiar ticking noise constantly keeping time. A 14-foot-long pendulum attached at the base sways methodically back and forth.
After he winds the clock, Pohlpeter takes a small key and — with a few turns — moves the dials one hour forward. People on the outside can see the clock hands move in real time.
Union Station has several steep, wooden staircases leading up to where the clock is kept. If the clock is ever removed for repairs, the mechanism must be taken down in pieces.
Joni Land / OPB
The changing of the time at Union Station is a family tradition for Pohlpeter. His father, Albert, took on the role starting in the 1980s, with John having taken over the last few years. John has operated his own business, called Another Time Restoration, for more than 30 years, where he restores clocks, musical instruments and other antique items.
John Pohlpeter said when his father restored the famous clock mechanism, it hadn’t been working and his father found many of the pieces sitting in boxes on the station’s loading dock.
“Nobody else has taken care of it,” he said. “He took care of it to the point that he couldn’t get up the stairs anymore — that’s the reason he stopped.”
The tower still shows its old age in many ways: Cracks and chips line the glass of one of the clock faces, while signatures on the old shed surrounding the mechanism date back as far as the 1920s. The western-facing dial has been broken for many months, so it doesn’t show the correct time.
John Pohlpeter looks at the western face of the Union Station clock tower in Portland on March 9, 2024. The clock, completed in 1895, has several chips and cracks on the inside.
Joni Land / OPB
And there’s no elevator, so if crews ever need to remove the 2,800-pound mechanism, it would have to be taken down piece by piece.
“If this (building) has an earthquake, it’s gonna be in pieces,” Pohlpeter said. “This building is not seismically stable at all.”
Oregon legislators recently considered a bill that would have eliminated daylight saving time in the state. It barely passed in the state Senate, but the House never took a formal vote.
Until legislation intervenes, Pohlpeter plans on maintaining his routine of ensuring that Portland’s most famous clock continues to keep time.
“Probably until I can’t walk up here anymore,” he said.
The outside of the Union Station clock tower in Portland on March 9, 2024. The dial on the western face is broken, so the time doesn't match the other three sides.
Joni Land / OPB