Joshua Nieman: Some combinations of things just don't work, and I apologize if you're a fan of any of the following. Grilled cheese and jelly, bananas and ranch, applesauce and mac and cheese, see I just, bleh, gross, gross. Like for real. However, some combinations go insanely hard. Biscuits and gravy, chips and salsa, milkshakes and fries for the more adventurous, look, all I'm saying is that all over this world you can find things that you'd expect to go together, that are going together. And some of them can be incredibly interesting. Such is the case with the Chelsea Clock Tower. I mean, water tower. Or just tower, I suppose, because historically, it's both. That's right. The Chelsea Clock Tower also functioned as a water tower, the interior is insane, and the story is just as odd as you'd expect. Welcome to WEMU's Hidden in Plain Sight, the show where we shed light on some of the people, places, and things that help comprise who we are as a community. I'm Joshua Nieman, and today we will be examining the most unique building west of the Huron River, and the centerpiece of its small town, the Chelsea Clock Tower. It all starts with this guy named Frank P. Glazier. Glazier was the proprietor behind Glazier Stove Works, which manufactured and shipped oil stoves all over the U.S., and impressively South America as well. Glazier began the process of building his complex in 1891, and by 1907, the tower was completed and served as the most recognizable part of his industrial empire. It's also this tower that will be producing all of the ticking and clanging and overall noise you hear in the background throughout parts of this episode. It provided water to sprinkler systems all throughout the entirety of the campus, which was vital considering that they were making, well, stoves. Glazier was a bit of a questionable guy, however.
Amy Collins: He is a colorful character in Michigan history.
Joshua Nieman: That is Amy Collins, owner of the Collins Wedding Venue Company, which now occupies the complex and tower.
Amy Collins: He was the controller for the state of Michigan and then was tagged with embezzlement and fraud.
Joshua Nieman: By controller, she means state treasurer. And not only was it embezzlement and fraud, it was one of Michigan's more notorious financial scandals in general. Glazier's reach was huge. He acted as state treasurer from 1905 to 1908. And during that time, he was also principal stockholder, active manager, director, and president of Chelsea Savings Bank. He used his state position to siphon about $680,000 into his bank. Before Governor Fred Warner moved to have him ousted in late 1907. As a result, Glazier resigned. Former Governor John T. Rich was appointed to clean up his mess, and that spiraled into a story for another time. Glazier was indicted on 31 counts, which represented 28 different offenses committed on 28 different days over the course of nearly two years. Ultimately, only 10 of those counts proceeded to jury, and he was sentenced to five to 10 years in Jackson State Prison. However, in 1912, he was released from prison and pardoned by Governor Chase Osborn on alleged account of Glazier's diabetes and declining health. He died on January 2, 1922, at the age of 59. He served two years in prison for his crimes and embezzled around 20 million dollars in today's money for motives that are still debated over to this day. Amy's right. What a colorful fella. So what happened after that?
Amy Collins: There was a huge campus. I think there were seven buildings originally. And a few of them have been taken down over the years, but it became, I believe, a screw factory. And then, housed the first brewery in the state of Michigan. Yeah, it's, like, crazy. From what I've heard, they drank away their profits, and then it didn't make it very long. And then the teddy bear factory was here that manufactured the Roosevelt teddy bear. And then some other people in between. Some corporate stuff. I believe there was a small publishing house here, and then it sat very, very, almost dormant for quite some time, 10–15 years. It didn't have a lot of tenancy going on here.
Joshua Nieman: That's true! A company called Federal Screw Works once did briefly occupy part of the complex. Before that, though, the complex housed businesses like Flanders Manufacturing Company, which built motorcycles, Lewis Spring and Axle Company, which built automobiles, Grant & Wood Manufacturing Company, which built airplane engines, and many more. I could go on and on and on. But the headlines are definitely the Real Ale Company, the Chelsea Teddy Bear Company, and, of course, Glazier Stove Works. The '80s filled the complex with activity too, as did a long list of tenants in the mid-2010s, but that basically brings us up to the present with the Collins. And such is where you and I entered the picture. I remember exactly what was going through my mind when this topic crossed my desk. On paper, a clock tower that was also once a functioning water tower at the same time sounds incredible, and I was only further convinced when I saw pictures. The Chelsea Clock Tower is not only a gorgeously detailed brick structure, but from the outside you can also almost picture how it works. The clock tower is uniquely bulbous at the top, and originally I assumed that's where the water was held. It was only until I was inside that I discovered that wasn't actually the case. Amy was kind enough to show me around the interior and tell me a bit about all that goes into managing a building like this.
Amy Collins: Our floors are 18 inches of concrete between our floors. It's really funny, after drilling's done. It's intense, it's very intense. And it stood the test of time. And so I had opened my wedding venue across the street, and I needed some chapel space, and so the third floor was open. And so at the time, it was very—I joke—it looked like Wall Street on the inside. I mean, it had, like, the pit, and it was nasty. All the things. It was disgusting. And so originally the plan was to just take the third floor, gut it, and make it a chapel for our other location. And as I was gutting it, everyone's like, this is a really cool venue. And I'm like, oh gosh. And so we made that a venue. And then the first floor came available, gutted that one, and that's actually the chapel that both venues serve now. It's definitely the staple of the town. It's in everybody's logos. You know, my partner and I are really trying to preserve it. It's actually, crazy enough, in quite the disarray situation right now. When we acquired it last year, we've had to do a lot of emergency repairs—roofs, cage backs. The windows desperately need to be replaced. And so what's happening is that the actual integrity of the building is at stake, eventually, if we don't take care of it in the next two years. So when he and I purchased it, we really did want to preserve something that is so precious to this town. And so that's kind of the process that we're in right now, redoing a lot of the unsexy things of the building. Yeah. I think what's really cool is how well it's made. So many things in today's world aren't well made, and it's clearly been well made and well thought of. I mean, I can't even imagine. When we got it appraised for insurance values, they were like, yeah, this is a grown-up building, so you can't actually really get a real number on it, because to build it would be just insurmountable.
Joshua Nieman: The lights were dim, and the corridors were narrow. I was having a blast inside. I found that the cistern for the water was actually located below the clocks, which I guess made more sense than my original theory, but it was positioned in the center of the tower, surrounded by a winding concrete staircase. And the stairs are steep.
Amy Collins: You know, we don't let everybody up here. It's a very, you know, private space. You know, you had to sign off on a lot of things. And so it's one of those things that is held dear in this town. A lot of people have seen it and they say, oh, can we walk through the clock tower? And we just reserve the right to people that are getting married or whatnot, or people like yourself. But I think the cool thing is to bring people who have been here a really long time and have come up. My favorite thing, though, is, like, we try to tell our brides, like, listen, you need flat shoes. Like, you cannot wear your heels, you have to wear flats. And they're always like, okay, okay. Then we're like, listen, you can't do this until after your ceremony. It's very dirty. Like, it's kind of intense. And they're like, yeah, yeah, and then they start walking. And they're like, whoa, whoa! Every single time. We're not exaggerating. Photographers are always funny. They're like, oh, you know, that's okay about insurance. You gotta have insurance. You gotta sign off. It's gonna get intense. And then they get up there like, man, we understand why. So I don't think people realize it is so steep to get up here. And so I think my thing is, it's a continual joke at this point. We know how intense it is, but you forget about the first time. You're like, whoa.
Joshua Nieman: After we got settled, Amy explained just how much of a roller coaster owning this business has been.
Amy Collins: My partner, John Dunn, and I purchased this. We finalized on it last year. Ron Weiser had owned it for the last 20 years before that and really kind of revitalized the entire Clock Tower and the Commons and tried to bring it back to its original state, which, funny enough, John—my partner—his dad owned it before. So he and partners owned it before he sold it to Ron. And then I had an opportunity to purchase it. Just felt like I wanted a partner as a part of the deal, so I went to John and said, hey, what do you think about this? Dad used to own it. He's like, oh gosh, that's gonna be a fun project. And to say it's a fun project is an understatement. But truly, it's a very historical building. We have the clock faces. There's four of them that face all the different directions. The actual clock mechanism is so old that there's, like, very, very few people who can ever service it. But it also runs really efficiently. So, put some oil in it once a year and whatnot, but it continues to run and all the things. This place is so cool. I love it. I know. It's really unique. It's special. It's very special. We had a bat in it last year. Had to get that out. Yes, no, there was a bat. Someone had left the door open at the top, I think, and it made its way in. And I don't know how that would go up, and who knows. And then downstairs, it, like, made its way through, like, one of these tiny little things because it was warm, and it was so cold this winter, and it just snuck its way down. All of a sudden our staff was like, there's a bug on the wall.
Joshua Nieman: I love how you can faintly hear the ticking and mechanical mechanisms move through the mic. It was honestly kind of like standing inside a living organism, with the sense that everything around you was moving and serving a purpose. I also got the honor of signing the wall.
Amy Collins: And having people sign the wall is, like, a really, really special thing because you can kind of go through the history of all the years and see what that looks like, and not only find your name, but just kind of walk around and see people from a very, very long time ago. And what that looks like is pretty special. And I think so many people's first day as husband and wife is, like, here in this building, and as married couples, so it's very, very special.
Joshua Nieman: The wall refers to the walls of the wooden box containing the primary clock mechanisms right behind the clock faces. It's pretty cool looking up at the clocks from the ground and knowing that countless couples have taken pictures there, marking the beginning of their new lives. I think there's almost something poetic about it. Clocks tell the time and are proof that time never slows down. Photos stop a moment in time to immortalize it forever. Using the collision of both motifs to mark a new era in one's life is a pretty unique legacy for a building to have. And after living so many lives itself... It's one that I think is fitting for the Chelsea Clock Tower. It's a combination that works. I'm Joshua Nieman, and this has been WEMU's Hidden in Plain Sight. Who knows where we'll shed light next? Thanks for listening. My mom would hate this. She's claustrophobic. Does it ring on half-hour marks?
Amy Collins: It only did it once, and if it does, it's going to be 30 seconds behind just so you can have a little fun back. It's really hard to get it directly on the line. We try and then it has like a delay and we get harassed in this town about it. It's awful. We get it. It's 100 years old.
Joshua Nieman: Sweet. All right.
Music in this episode provided by Adam Plomaritas.
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