The 16th Street Mall bell tower has gone silent, for now

Have you noticed a certain something missing from your holiday shopping season? A hint of mirth, a dollop of tradition, a drop of joy?

(Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite)

staff photo
Downtown Denver. (Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite)

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Downtown Denver. (Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite)

Have you noticed a certain something missing from your holiday shopping season? A hint of mirth, a dollop of tradition, a drop of joy?

Well, there are any number of reasons for that, but we know one thing that is distinctly missing from Denver this December: The chimes of the Daniels & Fisher Tower on the 16th Street Mall have been temporarily silenced.

Things first went awry with the seasonal time change. The clock didn’t “fall back” and kept ringing the wrong time, according to Denverite reader Mia Pryce.

A couple days later, on Nov. 6, a system failure left a large swath of downtown without power. “The clock stopped at 12:30 a.m.,” wrote Pryce, who lives nearby. And the chimes have been silent ever since, she said.

A spokeswoman for Clocktower Events confirmed that the chimes are out of commission. It should be fixed this weekend, she wrote in an email.

The tower was the tallest man-made building west of the Mississippi River when it was completed in 1911, according to Confluence Denver. It’s 325 feet tall, not counting the flagpole

Historic Denver offers walking tours of the building, although I don’t see any on the calendar right now.

16th Street in 1938. (Otto Roach/Denver Public Library/Western History Collection/X-23375)

16th Street in 1938. (Otto Roach/Denver Public Library/Western History Collection/X-23375)

An aerial view of downtown Denver, with the Daniels and Fisher tower and 16th Street at center, between 1922 and 1930. (Harry M. Rhoads/Western History & Genealogy Dept./Denver Public Library)

An aerial view of downtown Denver, with the Daniels and Fisher tower and 16th Street at center, between 1922 and 1930. (Harry M. Rhoads/Western History & Genealogy Dept./Denver Public Library)

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