They say “time waits for no man.”  Maybe it doesn't, but Georgia is home to a trove of timepieces that have clearly been waiting for a guy like State Representative Brooks Coleman to come along. Coleman, who lives in Duluth, was first elected to the Georgia General Assembly in 1997.  When he showed up to get his legislative parking pass, he noticed a broken-down old grandfather clock in the clerk’s office.  It was being sold off for $200.  Coleman, with a passion for antiques and the eye of a collector, immediately sensed its value.  He asked then-governor Sonny Perdue if he could take the old clock to his club, a chapter of the National Association of Clock and Watch Collectors.


After painstaking research, and much intricate repair work, that clock was restored to its former glory and now ticks proudly in the Governor’s Office at the Gold Dome.  At the dedication ceremony, Perdue mentioned that there were some old clocks at the Governor’s Mansion that could use similar attention. Coleman, and his friends at the NAWCC jumped at the chance and embarked on a multi-year, multi-administration campaign to restore these valuable artifacts to working order. They also earned the admiration and gratitude of First Lady Sandra Deal when they refurbished one of her most treasured family heirlooms as part of their ongoing project.


George Waterhouse and Chris Brown offered GPB’s Lisa Clark a tour of these clocks, along with the First Lady and Rep. Coleman.