Historic Concord clock on display before long-awaited return to courthouse tower

The restored 1876 Seth Thomas clock is expected to return to the Cabarrus County Historic Courthouse tower in November after nearly a decade away.

Alex Porter, a Historic Cabarrus Association board member, discusses the history of the restored 1876 Seth Thomas tower clock during Saturday’s soft launch of the new Historic Visitors Center. Photo courtesy of HCA.

For nearly a century and a half, an 1876 Seth Thomas tower clock kept watch over downtown Concord from atop the Cabarrus County Historic Courthouse.

Now, after decades of silence and years of painstaking restoration work, residents have a rare opportunity to see one of Cabarrus County’s most distinctive pieces of history up close before it returns to the tower.

The roughly five-foot-tall clock will remain on display at the Historic Cabarrus Association’s headquarters inside the courthouse for the next two months, alongside several artifacts connected to its history. The main clock mechanism has been on display since late May.