Could you track down whatever became of the Big Ben in London Square Mall? You can’t tell me that they just junked it when they tore the place down …
    Thanks for asking! That’s an e    asy one; it’s at the Chippewa Valley Museum! (Dear readers: you might think this is some kind of setup, but it’s not; like every question, this one’s really real.) This exact-scale replica of the Great Clock of Westminster (London’s “Big Ben” to you and me) sat at the London Square Mall from 1971 to 1998, when mall owners Jack and Miriam Shenkman donated it to the museum. (The mall itself hung on until 2002, depending on what “hung on” might mean: already by 1998, it’s “non-anchor” space was only 10 percent leased.)

The real Big Ben’s clock faces are set inside iron frames 23 feet across. The Eau Claire clock’s analogous face-frames: 16 inches across. Still even at this cute scale, the London Square clock tower stands 12 feet high, which is why it’s not often on exhibit (it’s possible: museum’s highest ceiling: 15 feet).

Detroit artist Oscar Graves constructed the clock for London Square. While we Eau Clairians think of it fondly, it’s by no means his most notable work. Graves sculpted a show-stopping (and somewhat controversial) bust of Martin Luther King, Jr., for the MLK Memorial Park in Detroit, as well as helping with the imposing “Spirit of Detroit” sculpture in front of Detroit’s Coleman A. Young Municipal Center. The latter while he was a young man working under his teacher, the internationally famous Marshall Fredericks.

How did a relatively famous African-American sculptor come to create the icon for a departed Eau Claire shopping mall? I’m guessing it has to do with the Shenkmans. They hailed from suburban Detroit and I’m sure knew the arts community well, being “donor level” folks (as would be suggested by the Jewish-center-anchoring, architecture-award-winning Jack & Miriam Shenkman Building on its scenic 40-acre campus). Bet they knew every noted artist in the area.

Parenthetically, London’s Big Ben (younger than you might think: only celebrated its 150th this year) was the world’s largest four-faced clock until 1962. Overtaken by the Allen-Bradley Clock Tower of — yes — wait for it — Milwaukee, Wisconsin!

When I was a kid in the 60s, I delivered newspapers to two brothers who lived alone in a spooky old building on Chippewa Falls’ west hill. People said it had been a sanitarium. Could it have been?
    Distinctly possible. I’d need a little more information before I could tell you which one. Among the candidates (depending on how far you want to stretch the term sanitarium): St. Joseph’s (corner of Pearl and Spruce): now St. Joseph’s Apartments. Rutledge Home (Eagle and Bridgewater): still there. St. Luke’s (Macomber and Huron): replaced by a house. Chippewa Springs Sanitarium (Mansfield and Carson): now a private home. And a home-clinic-thing at 1425 Eagle (across the street from the Rutledge Home): now a house, definitely a different structure than back in the day. It was Health Care Central on the west hill

The Chippewa Springs place was a mineral-water and mud-bath kind of sanitarium (more health spa than TB or mental ward). During the 60s, I think sets of brothers lived both at the location of the former St. Luke’s and the former Chippewa Springs. If you like, write back and give me a little more. We’ll get you there.

Got a local question? Send it (17 S. Barstow St.) or email it (mail@volumeone.org) and Frank will answer it!  Frank has lived in Eau Claire for most of the past 41 years. He is an editor and researcher at the Chippewa Valley Museum, which is open all year just beyond the Paul Bunyan Camp Museum in beautiful Carson Park. You should go there.