BIDDEFORD — On Wednesday, standing nearly nine stories above Adams Street, inside the City Hall clock tower, Phil Radding tugged on a string that was dangling from the ceiling. A muffled, metallic thump could be heard from above.

“That’s all you get out of the bell,” Radding, the city’s facilities manager, said with a grin.

Radding is one of several city employees who for years have championed restoring the clock tower, which, along with the City Hall building, is 120 years old. “This building is the icon of the city,” he said. “I can’t imagine what (Biddeford) would be like if they had everything developed and City Hall looked like this ”“ like it’s very tired.”

Earlier in the day, Mayor Alan Casavant and City Manager John Bubier were reminded of the building’s history when Paul Stevens presented them with a portrait of his great-grandfather, John Calvin Stevens ”“ the famed architect who designed the Biddeford City Hall and City Theater buildings, as well as municipal buildings in Skowhegan, Cornish and Portland.

“I’m glad to get this down here,” said Stevens, who works as an architect at the Portland-based firm his great-grandfather founded in 1884, just 10 years before designing City Hall. The original building, which was built in the 1860s, had burned down less than a year earlier.   

“It’s so important to have this here in the building,” said Bubier. “The Maine coast is scattered with pieces of his work, and they’re all fairly well-known. ”¦ He is to architecture as Winslow Homer is to painting.”

Casavant said the photograph ”“ which pictures a black-and-white, mustached John Calvin Stevens, wearing eyeglasses and a bow tie ”“ will be hung in one of the building’s hallways during a ceremony at some point this summer.

“It’s going to be in a prominent spot,” he said, adding that he hopes the portrait will “reconnect history with the needs of today and this building,” including restoring the clock tower and its bell, which were once vital to the city’s operations.

Bubier explained that in the 1800s, the bell served as a call to government for the city’s residents. Additionally, bells on top of the Lincoln Mill and St. Joseph’s Church served as calls for work and religion, respectively, he said.

“They communicated with each other,” said Bubier. “They symbolized the structure of the community.”

The bell that previously sat on top of the Lincoln Mill has been removed and sold. But Bubier said the foundry where it was made in England is still in operation, so the city could have an exact replica of it made, and that’s an idea officials will discuss with Tim Harrington, who is developing the mill into a luxury hotel and apartment complex.

As for the rapidly deteriorating City Hall clock tower, about seven years ago, the city paid for $225,000 worth of stabilization work on the tower, which included replacing some of the rotting wood with plastic, said Radding. But it’s been decades since any “significant work” has been done on it, he said, adding that it would now cost about $1.75 million to entirely restore the tower. Bubier added that residents have twice voted against approving bonds for that work.

In addition to repointing the bricks, stripping and replacing all of the wood and fixing the windows, Radding said a restoration project would also bring the tower back to its original color: dark red. It was only given a coat of white paint, which is now peeling in many places, and golden gilding on its dome in the 1980s, he said.

Radding said several pieces of the original tower, which have either broken off or been removed, are being stored in the basement of City Hall, while he and others wait ”“ and hope ”“ for a restoration project to move forward. If it does, those pieces will allow the city to rebuild the tower exactly as it was in 1894, he said.

Casavant said as time passes, restoration will either have to happen or the city will risk losing a piece of history. “It’s iconic,” he said. “It’s a symbol of Biddeford. It would be a tragedy to lose it due to neglect.”

— Staff Writer Angelo J. Verzoni can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 329 or averzoni@journaltribune.com.