IT'S ABOUT TIME ... AND HISTORY

Couldn't help but notice the vast improvement to downtown La Grange at the northwest corner of La Grange Road and Calendar Court of late: a beautiful addition to the burgeoning retail district, correcting what was long an eyesore and what some say truly belongs in its original location.

I am, of course, referring to the elegant La Grange State Bank four-sided clock, which has finally been refurbished by its current "owner," Chase. It has long been one of my favorite elements of the central business district and a piece of history many don't know much about.

Back when I was a senior staff writer for a community newspaper chain covering La Grange about a decade ago, downtown property owner Jerry Burjan of La Grange-based Burcor Properties converted a deteriorating three floor retail space into an architectural gem reminiscent of the turn of the (20th) century -- the way it looked back when La Grange Road was called Fifth Avenue.

The building, at the southeast corner of La Grange Road and Burlington Avenue, now houses Chipotle and Noodles & Company. But decades earlier, the red brick building with upstairs offices and a fancy staircase leading to a lower mezzanine, it was called the La Grange State Bank.

The bank's signature feature was a beautiful towering black steel clock outside its main entrance, the same four-sided Seth Thomas clock now in front of Chase. It's now where it is because when the original bank was taken over and eventually relocated across the street and south a block, the clock was moved with the institution.

But with the myriad of bank mergers and buyouts over the years which are so commonplace today, nobody apparently ever thought to move the clock back -- even when Burjan made a pitch to bring it back across the street when he purposely designed the front windows of the building with the black cast iron gates at their base to mirror the look of the original bank.

It seemed like a fitting tribute to Burjan's renovation efforts, especially given the fact that for years -- up until this week, that is -- the clock sported either the wrong time or sometimes four different times on its faces. In recent years, the clock face directed to the west had no hands on it and a fading La Grange State Bank logo.

A few months ago, I approached a bank manager and inquired about the condition of the clock and was informed a requisition was filed with the corporate folks to once and for all restore the clock's operation to its original grandeur.

Although it is not where I'd like it to be, it was refreshing to drive by the bank a few days ago and read the correct time, then pulling over to find all four clock faces sporting identical times.

The only difference is the original bank name is no longer there and neither is the current one. But the town's name is there along with its incorporation date of 1879. That, unfortunately, does not match the depiction of the timepiece on a bronze plaque right outside the main entrance of Chase on Calendar Court.

That date is 1899: the date of the founding of the bank which originally stood across the street.

Hat's off to the blue shirts at Chase. for returning the clock to its original condition.