A historic Sessions Regulator clock, circa 1900, changed hands Wednesday morning on the front steps of the Museum at Central School in Kalispell.

A delegation from the recently formed Paradise Elementary School Preservation Committee donned period clothes and came from Sanders County to accept the clock from the Northwest Montana Historical Society. 

Today from 5 to 7 p.m. the Paradise Committee will hold a special event at the Paradise Elementary School to accept the return of the clock, which originally hung in the Paradise School.

The story of how the clock came to the Museum at Central School has some gaps since those involved in the transaction are no longer alive or in the area.

What is known is that around 1971 a Mr. Corbin was moving out of the Flathead Valley and gave the clock to his good friend Gene McGlenn and his wife, Dorothy, because he knew they liked antiques. 

How Corbin obtained the Paradise clock is lost to history, according to a news release from Gil Jordan, executive director of the Northwest Montana Historical Society.

In 2002 the clock’s new owners, the McGlenns — who were among the founders of the just-opened Museum at Central School — decided to donate the clock to the Northwest Montana Historical Society.

The classic clock was mounted on the wall of the museum’s restored classroom on the second floor, where it stayed until a few months ago when the historical society learned of the Paradise preservation effort. 

About the same time, Marlene “Polly” Carr, wife of former Kalispell postmaster Bill Carr, donated another classic clock that had hung in the original Kalispell post office in the building now housing the county library.

The Museum at Central School now had a replacement period clock with local history, so it seemed fitting to support the preservation efforts in Paradise by returning the clock to its original home, Jordan said in the news release.