A $350,000 federal grant means the City of Warwick will finally be able to shore up and repair its landmark bell tower and steeple clock, which is still wound by hand each Friday.

The Journal / Barbara Polichetti

WARWICK — Winding the clock at City Hall isn’t that bad — once you catch your breath.

Located almost six stories up in the brick tower with a weathered copper dome, the internal works of the late 19th-century clock can only be reached by climbing up 104 steps from street level. Then, a lever is used to crank up the pendulum weights that descend click by click every minute of the day.

And even though the historic clock is still ticking, it needs work and so does the domed tower which is a landmark feature of Warwick’s Victorian-era City Hall.

The city had been looking for money to tackle the project for the past few years, and this week Mayor Scott Avedisian announced that the work would be done thanks to a $350,000 federal restoration grant.

The grant was made available through the Department of the Interior’s Save America’s Treasures program. The money will be paired with a $50,000 grant the city was awarded this year by the Rhode Island Historical Preservation & Heritage Commission

“We’ve known ever since we redid the City Council chambers several years ago that the clock and the tower also needed to be done, but we had to find a way,” Avedisian said, referring to the painstaking interior historical restoration project completed in 2003.

According to Avedisian, the first order of business will be to buttress the tower which is original to the 1893 brick-and-granite municipal building and which has gotten a bit rickety with age. Also, he said, the copper roof on the cupola that sits above the clock is leaking and needs repair.

“It’s quite a historic piece; tower clocks are not that common anymore,” said Joe Blake the city’s superintendent of buildings and unofficial clock-keeper. In researching tower clocks over the years, he said, he has frequently found references to Warwick City Hall. He said he hopes the grant money will allow for refurbishing the clock’s chime mechanism that use to ring through downtown Apponaug.

Avedisian credited Sen. Jack Reed and Rep. James Langevin for helping the city win the federal grant. “This now gives us what we need to put the last piece in place in restoring this building back to its original grandeur,” he said.

bpoliche@projo.com