Olympia bar owner will give facelift to old Miller Brewery clock

Olympia resident Bob Presley is restoring the clock that once hung outside the old Miller Brewery in Tumwater.

At 13 feet tall and 9.5 feet wide, the clock once hung on the brewery’s Capital Boulevard side. Presley had stumbled across the abandoned clock while doing roof work at the brewery, and arranged to buy it from the property’s trustees in California.

The clock is now mounted on a car trailer on hydraulics outside his home.

“It’s just kind of a piece of history,” said Presley, who collects vintage signs and similar items. “Most of those signs get scrapped.”

Miller took over the old Olympia Brewery property in 1999 and closed in 2003. The property has sat vacant since. Presley initially thought he had found an old Olympia Brewery sign/clock, which was similar in size and structure to the Miller sign.

The Miller sign was stripped of its neon lettering and likely didn’t have enough metal to sell for scrap, he said. Research has yielded little information on the clock’s manufacturer, but Presley says he believes it was built in the late 1990s.

Presley says he hopes to have the sign and clock fully restored in the spring. He may display it outside the Boulevard Tavern on Pacific Avenue in Olympia, where he is a co-owner.

“When it’s all done,” he said, “it’s going to look brand new.”

This story was originally published August 22, 2015 at 9:30 AM with the headline "Olympia bar owner will give facelift to old Miller Brewery clock."