Allen-Bradley Clock Tower, Milwaukee

Allen-Bradley Clock Tower, owned by Allen-Bradley, a product brand of Rockwell Automation, has long been a landmark in Milwaukee. Each face has a diameter of 40 feet, 3-1/2 inches. Dedicated on October 31, 1962, it rises 280 feet from the streets of Milwaukee, and requires 34.6 kilowatts of electricity for lighting and power.

The original plans for the clock tower date as far back as 1959, when it appears on early drawings for the proposed addition. Created by architect Fitzhugh Scott, the plans included several towers in its design, only one of which would house a clock. The interest in creating the tower was Harry Bradley, younger of the firm's two founding brothers.

The current clock tower stands at 283 feet. Because the octagonal faces are nearly twice the size of the faces of London’s Big Ben, chimes were never added in order to allow Big Ben to remain the largest four-faced chiming clock in the world. Both towers held their respective titles of largest clocks in the world until the completion of the Abraj Al Bait clock tower in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Each hour hand of the Allen-Bradley Clock Tower is 15.8 feet long and weighs 490 pounds. Each minute hand is 20 feet long and weighs 530 pounds. The hour markings are 4 feet high. Its lighted faces have been a faithful navigation aid for Lake Michigan mariners over the years, except during the 1973 oil crisis when the clock went unlit from November 1973 to June 1974.