On this episode of Banking on KC, Beth Woolsey, fifth-generation owner of The Clock Shop, joins host Kelly Scanlon to discuss carrying forward a 120-year family legacy while training her son to preserve the dying art of clock repair.
Tune in to discover:
Country Club Bank – Member FDIC
Kelly Scanlon: Welcome to Banking on KC. I'm your host, Kelly Scanlon. Thank you for joining us. With us on this episode is Beth Woolsey, the fifth generation owner of The Clock Shop? Welcome, Beth.
Beth Woolsey: Hi.
Kelly Scanlon: The Clock Shop, what, 120 years old this year? Yes, yes. Congratulations on that. Has roots stretched back to 1905 and you're running it as a fifth generation owner.
So how are you preserving and evolving the family legacy in today's business climate? And what unique brand positioning does that give you in Kansas City's market?
Beth Woolsey: Well, preserving the legacy you have to have. Family that's willing to do it. And fortunately, my son has decided that he wanted to learn and brought him on and taught him.
And so you gotta have that. And then people know my family has passed down years of knowledge from generation to generation and our history in Kansas City.
Kelly Scanlon: Yeah. So sixth generation, you're mentoring your son Chris right now, and your great-great-grandfather started the clock shop. What was it like back in 1905 when he started it and where was it located?
Beth Woolsey: I don't know the location of. It, it was in Kansas City. I know that, uh, he came over from Germany. It started as a jewelry slash clock store and repair. That's where it started. And then my great-grandfather opened the shop up on two 12 West 12th Street in downtown Kansas City in the twenties and thirties.
Maybe into the forties a little bit. And then from there, my grandfather opened up the shop in Brookside in 1955, and that was the year my dad was born. So my dad grew up working on clocks under my grandfather.
Kelly Scanlon: And then you came in, continue the tradition, and now you've moved to independence. Chris will take over the reins and uh, it will continue.
So was there ever a time where you thought, well, maybe I'll. Do something else or did you just always know it was in the cards for you to succeed your father?
Beth Woolsey: Well, I started coming in when I was a teenager and started learning. There was a period of time where I left and did other things, and, which is always good.
Really? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then came back. 'cause, you know, it's, it's what I wanted to do and mean. Working for yourself is different.
Kelly Scanlon: Yeah. Well there's the entrepreneurial side of it and you know that buck stops here. Responsibility that comes with being a business owner, but then you also have just, just the clock side of it.
I mean, you are practicing really. I don't think I'm going out on limb to say a dying art in some respects. Yes, it is. Definitely. Yeah, so, so how are you keeping that alive? Are there very many people or very many shops like yours around the country?
Beth Woolsey: Uh, they're dwindling down. Mm-hmm. That's for sure.
They're harder to find. Um, there used to be several clock shops in the Kansas City area, and I think three or four of them have closed in the last few years. Mm-hmm. It's, it's definitely a dying art.
Kelly Scanlon: Yeah. So you were in Brookside for 70 years and recently you've relocated to Independence. I think that happened in June.
So how are you expanding your service model or accessibility to maintain and grow clientele despite that move away from Brookside?
Beth Woolsey: Well, we are in a bigger space now in this location, and we have more. Space to showcase clocks for retail. And, um, we are getting a lot more foot traffic where we are as well.
So our. Retail side of it is picking up. We've seen and we hope that continues.
Kelly Scanlon: Well, you do retail as you've mentioned, but you also do clock preservation and repair. Just tell us about the breakdown there.
Beth Woolsey: Yeah, so the majority of what we do is repair. That's the main business. Focus a lot on that. Yeah.
What are some of the oldest clocks that you've worked on? Um, I've worked on clocks, um. In the early 17 hundreds is, is wow. Far back as I've gone.
Kelly Scanlon: Yeah. So how did you come about with that project? Uh, was it somebody's family heirloom or was it a museum piece? What was it?
Beth Woolsey: Um, it was just a, a customer that brought in antique, uh, lantern clock, which was made in the.
You know, early 17 hundreds and just needed it for re you know, done for repair
Kelly Scanlon: Are some of the most interesting clocks that you've seen. I mean, you people think of a clock and they think of an alarm clock, or they might think of a grandfather's clock, but I know there's all different kinds of clocks. So talk to us about some of the most interesting ones you've worked on.
Beth Woolsey: Oh, we've seen so many things, uh, you know. We see, get to see new things every day that we've never seen before. You'd think you'd seen it all, but we haven't. Um, uh, one that's most memorable, uh, that I've worked on was a Dutch clock made in the late 17 hundreds, and it was animated. So as the pendulum would tick down below at the very top, above the dial, there was a little man who would.
Tick across. He'd walk basically like walk across the front. It was like a painted scene. And then he would turn around and go back the other way as the clock is ticking. And it was really messed up from years of neglect and I had to figure out how to rewire him to make him work properly. But it was just really cool the things they did in back.
Way back then, and I was able to get it to work again and just, it, it felt, you know, I was really proud of myself.
Kelly Scanlon: Yeah, no, that, that is fascinating that you know, the technologies that they use then that have kind of been, no pun intended, lost to time, and yet here you are, 300 and some years later trying to.
Reimagine what was going through that clockmakers process so that you can restore it. Do you ever, are you ever able, or would that be a No-no. To fix older clocks by inserting. Modern technology into them.
Beth Woolsey: Um, we do that occasionally when something is not repairable anymore. There's just nothing we can do as far as parts available or being able to restore it.
Um, you know, that's an option we can offer customers, you know. Converted over to a battery unit. There's chiming ones and, and everything, you know, so we make 'em look most originals we can by using the same hands and face and all that. I didn't even think about the parts aspect of it. I bet some of those really are hard to come by.
They are, and that's kind of one of the challenges we face nowadays. There's a lot of parts that aren't available anymore and we just have to fabricate. Parts or rebuild them now. Mm-hmm. We're running into that and it just, you know, it takes a little bit more time to get that
Kelly Scanlon: done. Speaking of the time element, people today are very impatient and that, you know, most people get fast service or they're used to fast service, but you just describe some of the obstacles.
So how do you balance that quality? That you're trying to achieve along with efficiency so that customers get it in a reasonable amount of time. How do you balance that?
Beth Woolsey: It's hard because it takes time and we wanna do a good job, and so we are on a three month backlog right now. People. I think people know and understand that to get good work, they're gonna have to wait.
Kelly Scanlon: Well, yes. Especially somebody who has kept something as old as some of the clocks that you're talking about. It strikes me when we're talking about new technology and you can't get a part, can you use, um, 3D printing?
Beth Woolsey: Haven't done it yet. I know that technology is improving on that. I've heard of things out there that are 3D printed that are.
As hard as steel, you know, at some point we may venture into that, but, uh, for now you've always been, knock on wood,
Kelly Scanlon: you've been lucky to, uh, uh, or smart enough to figure out how to make it work without that, so. Right. Um, we talked a little bit about this a minute ago, but you know, clock repairs just isn't taught anymore.
So what are the challenges and the rewards of preserving such a specialized craft at a time, uh, when fewer people are learning it? And how are you approaching training the next generation, which is in this case, your son Chris?
Beth Woolsey: So it's true that schools used to teach it. That's been gone for, I don't know, 30 some years or so.
It's just a really good feeling to. Make someone's a hundred year old clock that work again just to see their face when grandma's clock
Kelly Scanlon: is ticking again. Obviously that's contagious because your son Chris has taken an interest as well. So in addition to your own family members, you mentioned that it's not taught in schools anymore, so do you do any kind of.
I guess for a better word, side education of folks. Are there associations, uh, for clock makers and clock repairs?
Beth Woolsey: There are associations. I mean, I don't do any teaching teaching except besides my son, but there are also outlets out there, like there's groups on Facebook that are clock. Making groups and, you know, people post problems and get answers and help through other clock makers.
Sure. So there's that.
Kelly Scanlon: So there's still dialogue going on. There's still Oh yeah. There's still communities of people who can, who can work together on a problem. Okay. Your son Chris, is learning the trade and, uh, we'll become the sixth generation. What's it like to mentor your own son and how do you balance passing on family heritage with introducing new ideas and techniques?
Too.
Beth Woolsey: Yeah. It, it makes me feel happy, um, to see how his skills have become, uh, in clock making and even seeing him come up with new ideas and embracing those myself and things that could, could work better for this or that. And he, I've adopted some of that from him. I mean, it's just, it makes me so proud to.
To be able to watch him evolve. And I think he's proud too of, of himself, of and what he's accomplishing. Yeah.
Kelly Scanlon: But it's synergistic. So he learned some of the traditional things from you, but he has some new ideas as well, right. So you're both learning from each other in many respects. What do you think is most needed?
To be a great clock repairer.
Beth Woolsey: Uh, patience. I was gonna say that. Yeah, definitely. Patience. I mean, you, you get into a clock and some lever's not working here or there. You just have to trace it down, watch it, see how it's falling. I see how it clicks into the gear and, and sometimes it takes a day or two trying to troubleshoot.
You know, you put it up to test and it. It jams or something, I have to take it back down, you know? It's, it's patience for sure.
Kelly Scanlon: Yeah. So despite the fact that it's such a painstaking kind of process, what appeals to you most about doing this?
Beth Woolsey: I enjoy taking something so old and just being able to make it work again, and I don't know, there's just something about figuring out, you know, they're all sort of similar in the way they work, but mm-hmm.
Different. Companies, different manufacturers made things different. Like the French clocks, for example. They're so precisely made. The screws are marked, uh, like for the time side and the strike side. Each screw is marked. With one or two dots. Same with the, the spring barrels on French clocks. Everything's marked where it goes in the clock.
And I love working on French clocks. That's just one of my favorite.
Kelly Scanlon: You've worked on a lot of prominent installations too. I mean, I think most people will recognize the clock at Union Station. Mm-hmm. And I mean that history of that clock with, you know, coming back from the wars and people greeting their loved ones.
So forth. There's just iconic photos taken under that clock, and yet you were working on it. And you've also worked on Fort Leavenworth, the Country Club Plaza, and several others. Mm-hmm. And you work on tower clocks. So how do high profile public projects fit into your business model? And how do you attract private collectors and institutional collectors?
Beth Woolsey: You know, we don't get a whole lot of tower clocks and, and high profile jobs, but when they come along, you know, I feel honored to do, uh, such a public piece like that. Attracting clientele is, uh, mostly word of mouth. Mm-hmm. Um, people know us and know what we do since we've been around so long. Right. And, um, you know, they're also, there's.
Companies that manufacture and distribute parts that when they know someone's looking like a, like a tower clock, um, they contact us. Mm-hmm. And so we have relationship with those companies and they pass on the projects to us.
Kelly Scanlon: How did you get involved with the Union Station clock?
Beth Woolsey: That was when I was younger.
Um, so my dad. Uh, did that, but I know he said when they went up there, the mechanism had been stolen. Oh,
Kelly Scanlon: was this during the period when Union Station was closed? Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Beth Woolsey: Oh, this is when they were first starting to restore it. Okay. And, um, there was nothing left up there. It, it had been gone, taken.
Mm-hmm. That was really cool to. Have that Union station project. My dad actually got married to my stepmom underneath that clock. Oh, fun.
Kelly Scanlon: So I'm assuming that with a clock as large as the union station clock, that was not in your shop, that he worked on it on site. Right. Um,
Beth Woolsey: they had it brought down from the ceiling and there's a picture of my dad standing next to it.
It's as tall as he is.
Kelly Scanlon: So, as a business with more than 120 years of history under your family's stewardship, what's your long-term vision for sustaining and scaling the. Clock shop, and I'm, I'm thinking about things like new artisans, which I know is really hard to come by based on what you've talked about today, exploring digital outreach, uh, or even expanding your restoration capacity.
Beth Woolsey: Um, you know, I think it's mostly just sustaining what we have. I don't have any plans for expanding or anything like that. Just keep doing good work and making people happy. So as we move into the future, since we moved to independence from Brookside, we've seen a lot of people that are happy that we moved into that area.
And then there's some that, you know, think it's a bit far. So we are offering some pickup and delivery of clocks, uh, because my. Dad still does the in-home service calls four days a week, so he's always out in the Kansas City area, all over the Kansas City area.
Kelly Scanlon: What do you think in terms of craftsmanship?
Obviously you are restoring clocks, but in terms of new clock making and the artisan ship, older clocks, are they gonna stand. It's a test of time longer than the ones being made today, do you think? Yes.
Beth Woolsey: They're, they were made to be repaired. I mean, they, they're good quality pieces and stuff nowadays, well, starting in the 1960s, I would say they started making.
Mechanisms that are cheaper and made to wear out and then you just replace 'em. Um, anything made past 1960 and it's hard to find mechanical clocks that are available today for sale. Um, new ones. There's only a couple companies, so
Kelly Scanlon: when you talk about clocks today, the pieces are made to be. Repaired or replaced.
Is that good news for you because, um, more people will be coming in to have those replaced or does it mean that Oh, because they're making them that way, they're cheaper to buy and so they'll just say, here's, you know, put it in the trash or put it on the curb and, and then go buy another one.
Beth Woolsey: Uh, yeah. I see probably both.
It just depends on the person. 'cause sometimes it costs more than what the clock's worth. To repair it. To repair it. Mm-hmm. And, you know, if it's just, it's important to them and their family, they'll do it. If there's a
Kelly Scanlon: sentimental value, they'll get it repaired. Correct. Um, as we close here today, I'm really curious, I know you say that, um, you try to turn them around and balance that quality with efficiency, but.
If you had to look back over the time you've been with your company, what's been one of the most challenging or difficult jobs you've had with a clock?
Beth Woolsey: Um, challenging and difficult. Uh, I would say learning and restoring. Uh, tubular bell movements. Those are big grandfather clocks that have the tubular bells in the back.
They're like big pipes in the back. Um, I've been doing a lot of them lately, but I'm really, yeah.
Kelly Scanlon: Who
Beth Woolsey: brings those kinds of clocks? Uh, so well, we go out to the customer's homes and, uh. Take it apart, take the movement out and bring it in for repair. And we completely, you know, run it through our cleaning system.
Um, we reb bush it by putting bushings in all the wor spots. That's just a, it's just a big job, a thorough job. Mm-hmm. That has to be done. And. It takes time. Yeah. So it'll take me several days, uh, to get one of those done.
Kelly Scanlon: So you've got 120 years among your family, several generations you'd be in the fifth.
Is there anything that has been passed down that, uh, you hold especially deer or there stories that you heard growing up that you still cherish or get a chuckle out of? Or is it just really kind of still resonate with you?
Beth Woolsey: Four generations in my family has been out and, uh, worked on the Fort Leavenworth Tower clock.
Out on the base, there's pictures of my grandfather out there working on it, black and white photo. Mm-hmm. Um, and then, um, there's pictures of my. Dad being out there. Mm-hmm. And, uh, myself and my father also, um, went out to work on it and then now my son has also been out there. Ah, okay. So four generations.
There's pictures of us up on the, the walls at the shop there of, of us all been being out there. Oh,
Kelly Scanlon: that's great. That. That's absolutely wonderful. You sometimes you hear about teachers saying they're teaching their students grandchildren. You know, you hear that every once in a while and hear you're working.
It's, it's great when families continue some kind of a tradition like that. Well, Beth, thank you so much for coming in here and sharing your story. Yeah. And to be able to put a spotlight on a dying art, but it's still something that people very much need. Thank you for training the sixth generation as well.
Yeah. We appreciate your time today.
Beth Woolsey: Oh, thank you very much.
Joe Close: This is Joe Close, president of Country Club Bank. Thank you to Beth Woolsey, fifth generation owner of the Clock Shop for being our guest. On this episode of Banking on KC. For more than 120 years, the clock shop has preserved the timeless craft of clock repair and restoration. Beth carries forward. The legacy began by her great-great-grandfather in 1905, teaching her son Chris to become the sixth generation to master the trade.
From French clocks to landmark installations like the Union Station timepiece, Beth's work safeguards, pieces of history while adapting to modern challenges. She and her family continue to expand services including pickup and delivery, to serve customers across the metro after their recent move to independence.
At Country Club Bank, we recognize the value of legacy businesses like the Clock Shop. They remind us that endurance, patience, and dedication are just as important in finance as they are in clock making. Thanks for tuning in. This week we're Banking on New Kansas City Country Club Bank, member FDIC.