Historic Old Clock

400 Parnassus
UCSF Medical Center
Inner Sunset

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Carried by ship around Cape Horn, this Seth Thomas Clock was installed on the medical school of the affiliated colleges in 1897. Surviving the 1906 earthquake, it served the university and community for 70 years. Members of the UCSF family have made possible its restoration as a campus landmark.

February 20, 1982

Seth Thomas was born in Wolcott, Connecticut, in 1785. He was apprenticed as a carpenter and joiner, and worked building houses and barns. He started in the clock business in 1807, working for clockmaker Eli Terry. Thomas formed a clock-making partnership in Plymouth, Connecticut with Eli Terry and Silas Hoadley as Terry, Thomas & Hoadley.  They made tall clocks with wooden movements.

In 1810, he bought out Terry’s share of the clock business, and in 1812 he sold his partnership and moved to Plymouth Hollow, Connecticut .  Here  he set up a factory with the intention to make metal-movement clocks. In 1817, he added shelf and mantel clocks. By the mid-1840s, he changed over to brass movements.  He died in 1859, and the company was taken over by his son, Aaron.  Aaron added many styles and improvements after his father’s death. The company went out of business in the 1980s.