The Androscoggin County Courthouse in Auburn, built in 1856, houses at least two treasures in its clock tower. One is the Henry N. Hooper Company bell, installed in the same year the building was erected. The Boston-based company was one of the successors of the Revere Foundry of Boston, founded by Paul Revere.

Androscoggin County Courthouse Facility Director David Cote says he was the last to ring the bell, when it was sounded manually on the occasion of Justice Thomas E. Delahanty II’s retirement from the Superior Court in 2010 — rung once for each of the 27 years he was in that position from 1983 to 2010. Cote notes that Delahanty is a history buff with extensive knowledge of the building, and while presiding there ventured into the clock tower on occasion to experience firsthand its history.

The second relic is an 1856 Howard and Davis model 2 clock, still fully functional, displaying the time for all passersby to see. The clock has been cranked every seven days for the past 156 years. Its features haven’t changed with modern technology; the clock’s counterweight, which provides the energy to power its gears, is still a box full of field stones cranked to the top of the clock tower each week.

In times past, inmates from the county jail were assigned the task of winding the giant clock, but Cote does it these days. “I still get a thrill when it’s time to wind the timepiece. I feel like I am touching a piece of history and am honored that for the present time I get to be the temporary caretaker of these precious relics,” he says.