I get asked from a lot of different customers about the Marx clock. For anyone that doesn’t remember it, look at this incredible picture one of my client sent me.

This photo is so nostalgic. I love the way Broadway in Portland looked at night back then. It was so bright and colorful lit up with all that neon.

Portland at night now is much darker and only consists of streetlamps. The color of this photo is incredible.

So of course I had to track the photo down online. I found it here. This is a great site full of amazing photos of Portland, Oregon through the ages.

The reason why my client sent me this photo however is because of the Marx clock on the right hand side. She wanted to know if this was indeed the same clock and what exactly had happened to it.

Because of the amount of questions I get on the Marx clock I thought it best to get the story out there for everyone.

A Portland Landmark

The Marx clock was registered as a historical site in Portland some years ago. It had been standing in front of my store in the same location since the 1940’s.

It was made old school, real quality that stood the test of time. It was also very beautiful.

Then came the accident

There was a car accident in front of the store in June of 2006. A truck hit the clock and knocked it over. Even something built old school and meant to stand the test of time could not survive being hit by a truck.

But accidents happen, you know? We didn’t take anything personal.

Until the insurance company got involved that is.

Unfortunately they kind of slapped us in the face. They literally offered us half of what it would have cost us to repair or replace the clock.

I understand how insurance works and I know this is standard practice but it was a historical monument. Those are not cheap to replace.

Unfortunately at the end of the day we had to make the very difficult decision to not repair or replace the clock. The cost was just too high.

But these old photos of the clock sure do make me reminiscent of having it there.

~Slava