The Keney Memorial Clock Tower, Hartford

The Keney Memorial Clock Tower is a striking landmark in Hartford, rising from a small public park at the intersection of Main and Ely Streets, right where Albany Avenue feeds into the North End. Standing 130 feet tall and built of red sandstone from Longmeadow, Massachusetts, the tower is a fine example of Collegiate Gothic architecture and holds the distinction of being Hartford’s only free-standing tower. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.

Completed in 1898, the tower was a gift from Walter and Henry Keney in honor of their mother, Rebecca Turner Keney. Though Henry Keney’s will had originally called for a memorial to his successful grocery business, his children chose instead to commemorate their mother’s wisdom and guidance. A plaque on the tower pays moving tribute to her, describing it as a lasting honor to her "wisdom, goodness and womanly nobility."

The tower was designed by Charles Coolidge Haight, a New York-based architect known for his Collegiate Gothic style. Rising from a 30-foot square base, the structure is flanked by vertical buttresses and capped with decorative pinnacles and finial crosses. Each face of the tower features a clock, and above them, lancet-arched louvers surround a bell chamber that chimes every quarter hour.

The Keney family helped shape Hartford’s North End through gifts like the tower and Keney Park. In 1924, they deeded the tower and its 1.5-acre park to the city. Though now separated from downtown by I-84, the tower still stands as a historic and architectural gateway to the North End.