It’s About Time: Historic Liberty County Courthouse clock returns after decades in storage

It spent years sitting in the corner of an office before disappearing into storage, where it collected dust and was all but forgotten.

Now, after nearly two years of determination, one of the Liberty County Courthouse’s oldest pieces of history is back where it belongs.

An antique courtroom clock believed to have first been installed in the courthouse in the 1940s has been restored and returned to the County Court at Law courtroom, where it once faithfully kept time for courthouse employees, elected officials and visitors alike.

“It just looks nice hanging in there working,” Liberty County Pct. 1 Commissioner Bruce Karbowski said. “People walk in there now and they stop and look at it. I think people are as pleased as I am that something that old in our courthouse is up and functioning.”

Today, the clock hangs on the south wall of the courtroom, which also serves as the Liberty County Commissioners Court meeting room. Originally, it hung on the north wall before being removed decades ago after it stopped working.

No one seems to know exactly when the clock was taken down. For years afterward, it sat in County Court at Law Judge Tommy Chambers’ office before eventually being placed in storage.

“It wasn’t working anymore, and one discouragement after another kept it from being repaired,” Judge Chambers said. “Eventually, it just got put away.”

The clock wasn’t just decorative.

Before modern timekeeping systems, it served as the courthouse’s master clock, controlling a second clock that still hangs in the hallway outside the courtroom. Many courthouse employees today never realized the two clocks once worked together.

The effort to bring the clock back to life began a couple of years ago when County Clerk Lee Chambers, wife of Judge Chambers, rediscovered it.

Known for her passion for preserving local history, she cleaned the clock and mentioned it to Karbowski, hoping it could someday be returned to the courtroom.

Karbowski immediately took on the challenge.

Finding someone capable of repairing an approximately 80-year-old mechanical clock proved to be anything but easy.

The clock spent months at one repair shop with little progress before it was moved to another specialist in Houston. At one point, county officials worried they might not even get the clock back.

“I kept asking, ‘Where’s my clock?'” Karbowski said with a laugh. “I didn’t want to put something up that wasn’t working.”

Even after it was repaired, Karbowski insisted on letting the clock run for several weeks before it was reinstalled.

“I wanted to make sure it was working before we put it back on the wall,” he said.

The clock’s chime has been turned off so it won’t interrupt court proceedings, but its pendulum quietly swings throughout the day, accompanied by the subtle mechanical sounds that only an old clock can make.

For Judge Chambers, seeing the clock back in the courtroom has been especially meaningful.

“I’m really happy,” he said. “It’s just a sense of pride. It adds something to the courtroom.”

He’s also been surprised by how many visitors have recognized the antique timepiece.

“It’s funny how many people are interested in old clocks,” Judge Chambers said. “Several people have walked in and immediately recognized what kind of clock it is.”

Although the clock now hangs on the opposite side of the courtroom from where it originally stood, Karbowski believes it has found the perfect home.

He already has his eye on another project: restoring the hallway clock that was once connected to the newly restored master clock. That effort will have to wait until the county budget allows.

For Karbowski, restoring the courtroom clock was never about receiving credit.

“I just did it because I wanted it done,” he said.

Thanks to the persistence of Karbowski, the encouragement of County Clerk Lee Chambers and the support of Judge Tommy Chambers, a piece of Liberty County’s history has been given a second life. It may have lost a few decades, but it’s making up for lost time.