Lights illuminating clock at South Deerfield Congregational Church restored to working order

Keeper of the Town Clock Paul Olszewski looks up from the clockworks room to the clock faces in the steeple of the South Deerfield Congregational Church. The gears that turn the clock hands can be seen in the center, with four rods for the four clock faces.

Keeper of the Town Clock Paul Olszewski looks up from the clockworks room to the clock faces in the steeple of the South Deerfield Congregational Church. The gears that turn the clock hands can be seen in the center, with four rods for the four clock faces. STAFF PHOTO/PAUL FRANZ

Written records of when the clockworks were switched from weights to electric motors in 1957 in the South Deerfield Congregational Church.

Written records of when the clockworks were switched from weights to electric motors in 1957 in the South Deerfield Congregational Church. STAFF PHOTO/PAUL FRANZ

The South Deerfield Congregational Church.

The South Deerfield Congregational Church. STAFF PHOTO/PAUL FRANZ

The evolution of the lighting of the clock faces, starting with the single hanging incandescent bulb, then two fluorescent tubes on either side, and now the square wooden frames with LED lights to illuminate the clock faces of the South Deerfield Congregational Church.

The evolution of the lighting of the clock faces, starting with the single hanging incandescent bulb, then two fluorescent tubes on either side, and now the square wooden frames with LED lights to illuminate the clock faces of the South Deerfield Congregational Church. STAFF PHOTO/PAUL FRANZ

The bell in the belfry above the clock faces of the South Deerfield Congregational Church.

The bell in the belfry above the clock faces of the South Deerfield Congregational Church. STAFF PHOTO/PAUL FRANZ

Keeper of the Town Clock Paul Olszewski stands in the clockworks room of the South Deerfield Congregational Church.

Keeper of the Town Clock Paul Olszewski stands in the clockworks room of the South Deerfield Congregational Church. FOR THE RECORDER/LILLIAN HENDEL

The clockworks of the South Deerfield Congregational Church are now electrified.

The clockworks of the South Deerfield Congregational Church are now electrified. FOR THE RECORDER/LILLIAN HENDEL

Keeper of the Town Clock Paul Olszewski stands on the balcony of the South Deerfield Congregational Church.

Keeper of the Town Clock Paul Olszewski stands on the balcony of the South Deerfield Congregational Church. FOR THE RECORDER/LILLIAN HENDEL

By CHRIS LARABEE

Staff Writer

Published: 06-20-2025 2:42 PM

Modified: 06-20-2025 5:45 PM

SOUTH DEERFIELD — After several years of darkness, the lights behind the clock faces at the South Deerfield Congregational Church finally flicked back on recently, brighter than ever.

Over the course of the last several months, Keeper of the Town Clock Paul Olszewski has been working with About Time Restoration’s Sean Kane to replace the old fluorescent lights that backlit the clock for decades with new LEDs.

Olszewski, who, like many people in town, has a deep personal history tied to the church — he married his wife there in 1994 and his parents were married there in 1955 — said one of the reasons he wanted to restore the clock lights was to brighten up the neighborhood, much like how other historical churches do in the Pioneer Valley.

“Let’s face it, you go to Northampton or Amherst, they’re lit at night. It just looks nice,” Olszewski said at the church this week, adding that the looming 1888 Building project next door is another reason to take on the restoration. “It’s a functioning clock, so why not? I grew up with it, generations grew up with it.”

The system of fluorescent lights, as well as the electrification of the clock, had been in place since Nov. 21, 1957, according to chalk written inside the steeple, which has been used for decades as a sort of maintenance log by community members.

To replace the lights, Kane created frames to mount the LEDs, set the frames up within the church’s steeple and then connected the lights to the switch.

The clockworks were created by Seth Thomas Clock Co. of Thomaston, Connecticut, according to the plaque adorned below the gears. It was No. 1,887 and was created on June 15, 1914.

“The clock is fine,” Olszewski said. “The motor is good.”

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The Selectboard approved $2,873 for the project undertaken by About Time Restoration, a Higganum, Connecticut-based tower clock restoration and repair service. Additionally, the board approved a biannual contract with Kane, which will see him come up to Deerfield twice a year to conduct maintenance on the clock.

The clock is the second item on a long list of things Olszewski wants to undertake to keep the church, which was built in 1821 and closed in 2017, in pristine shape. The first major project came in 2023, when he helped facilitate the transfer of the church’s dormant organ to Merrimack College, where it was refurbished for the school’s Collegiate Church of Christ the Teacher to mark the institution’s 75th anniversary.

There is, though, still more work to do, according to Olszewski.

“We got this going and it looks better. It’s a process of what needs repairing,” he said. “The steeple obviously needs some work. … It doesn’t leak, but it’s time.”

Chris Larabee can be reached at
clarabee@recorder.com.