COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (KMTV) — The congregation at Broadway United Methodist Church in Council Bluffs is raising money to get its historic clock tower working again by hosting a 1950s-themed sock hop. I went 120 feet above the 100 Block in Council Bluffs to get a look inside the clock tower for myself.
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The church building has been on Broadway since the 1890s and the current clock was added in the 1950s. The congregation itself is 175 years old — almost as old as Iowa.
Pastor Brian Kemp-Schlemmer said the church recently restored power to the tower: "We finally got electricity run up there again last year and the lights are on and it’s backlit again and everybody can see that it’s not working."
The pastor says neighbors, who are not even members of the congregation, are volunteering to help.
"So, it’s important to people, whether they go to church here, or any place, or not," he said.
Church member and former newspaper reporter Tim Johnson joined us in the tower and explained the suspected cause of the damage: "This tower has been struck by lightning more than once."
That happened sometime between 2010 and the last few years.
Johnson joked that one reason the clock is important to neighbors is that bar patrons of bygone years found it handy: "You know you could step out the door, look at the clock, clock tower, and say ‘Gee, I should be home by now."
The effort to save the clock tower — or at least the clock in the tower — brings to mind the 1980s movie "Back to the Future." Kemp-Schlemmer said the congregation thought of that too, which inspired the 1950s-themed sock hop fundraiser.
"And the great thing about having a clock tower as a landmark is that, it’s not just something that was cool because it was in the past, but it’s something that can actually be functional moving into the future," Kemp-Schlemmer said.
The sock hop is scheduled for April 17. Doors open at 6:30, tickets are $20 for one person and $40 for a family, The Omaha Jitterbugs will teach dance lessons for anyone that would like to learn.
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