Duquesne Brewery Clock – Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania - Atlas Obscura

Duquesne Brewery Clock

The largest clock face in the United States is twice the size of Big Ben and infinitely more ad-sponsored. 

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The largest clock face in the United States and once the world, this stupendous timepiece has been marking the hours over the South Side of Pittsburgh since 1933.

This clock is 60 feet (18.3 m) tall and wide with a minute hand 28 feet (8.5 m) long which weighs a literal ton. The clock was built in the early 1930s for a massive Coca-Cola billboard placed on the slopes of Mount Washington, the hill that slopes toward the Monongahela and Ohio Rivers. After Coca-Cola removed its name from the billboard, various breweries both local and national would use the advertising space until 1961, when the Duquesne (pronounced doo-KANE) Brewery bought the clock and moved it to the top of its plant at the corner of South 21st and Mary Streets as a publicity stunt and had its slogan “Have a Duke” painted on the face.

Duquesne Brewery would close in 1972, and the clock stayed on the building. Various companies would repair and repaint the clock over the years, including other breweries, a natural gas company, and a local television station, until AT&T bought the rights in 2009. Their logo now helps tell the time over the South Side once more, with the clock clearly visible from the Birmingham Bridge and Parkway East Highway.

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