It’s been eight years since the classic Jessop’s Clock was on display at the former iteration of downtown San Diego’s Horton Plaza. The clock is being rejuvenating and readied to appear back in public in Balboa Park.
The 22-foot-tall timepiece, which somewhat resembles a gigantic pocket watch, had been a local icon for roughly a century.
The masterwork of design first appeared in front of Jessop Jeweler (952 Fifth Avenue) in 1907. In 1927, the clock was moved to 1041 Fifth Avenue, where it stayed for almost 60 years. It displayed time to former masses of urban shoppers inside Horton Plaza from 1985 to 2018.
Horton Plaza was recently reconfigured for mixed commercial use, but has had difficulty finding tenants and could be facing foreclosure.
The clock was removed unscathed, thought vandals had made attempts to deface it. It’s been sitting in storage boxes, awaiting sufficient funding to reassemble it indoors at the San Diego History Center, within Casa de Balboa on the The Prado in Balboa Park.
Family scion Jim Jessop hopes to raise $4 million to restore the iconic timepiece and create an endowment to maintain it indefinitely.
Jessop and former San Diego Union-Tribune writer John Freeman recently co-wrote about the clock and the family’s history in a book called Timeless Treasures.
For more information go to: San Diego History Center. SDSun
