Smith: Does this curfew tale ring a bell?

Having read of a handful of high-tech engineers voluntarily restoring hourly bell strikes to the old clock atop what we call the Empire Building, Jeff Elliott shared a tale of an attempt to employ that same bell to clear Santa Rosa’s darkened streets of kids perhaps up to no good.

The Santa Rosa Bank Building and its clock were new when a lyrical news story in The Santa Rosa Republican on July 8, 1908, recounted a City Council discussion on how to signal to minors that it was 8:30 p.m., the town’s curfew.

The article detailed “a general desire on the part of the public” to have a whistle blown “as a warning to straying juveniles that the big bogey man in blue coat and brass buttons is after them.”

Councilman Aubrey Barham observed “that it was impossible to get either (Grace Brothers) brewery or gas company steam whistles, as those instruments of exquisite melody are used for fire alarms and to call a lineman to answer lamp kicks at all hours of the night.”

However, the Republican story continued, Barham “was quite sure they could have the use of the big new bell on the Santa Rosa Bank building if they could have it rung at the hour.” If no one suitable could be found to toll the bell at curfew time, Barham suggested, the councilmen themselves could take turns ascending the tower to perform the duty.

Thus, that emotional council meeting of 106 years ago ended with a unanimous vote for the council members to sound the bell at 8:30 each night to chase home any of Santa Rosa’s little darlings still on the streets.

I might well know how long that practice endured were I Gaye LeBaron.

NEW TREE, NEW LIGHTS: The entertainment Monday for folks lunching or soaking up the sun on Old Courthouse Square was watching city workers high up on cherry-pickers string Christmas lights on a beauty of a redwood tree.

These are fairly high-tech lights, LEDs that change colors. They and the tree, located near the northwest corner of Third Street and Santa Rosa Avenue, will feature prominently in the reinvigorated tree-lighting celebration that happens on the square Friday evening.

Live music, “Taste of Downtown” foods and beverages, Native American gourd painting, magic, hands-on Children’s Museum exhibits, vignettes from the 6th Street Playhouse holiday vaudeville - there’s a lot to the Winter Lights celebration, which starts at 5 p.m.

Though an expanded number of businesses and community organizations are working on this 35-year-old kickoff to the holidays, the key sponsor still is Sutter Care at Home. A 7 p.m. person-to-person candle lighting will honor loved ones who have passed away.

In previous years, the Christmas lights were strung in a cluster of three redwoods that stand near the Empire Building. An effort to string newer, more efficient and visually pleasing lights in the trees led to the discovery by an arborist that the three trees weren’t sufficiently healthy to be restrung.

So the color-changing lights went up in the younger tree kitty-corner to Bank of America.

KSRO’s Steve Jaxon will emcee Winter Lights and the country/Americana band Frankie Boots & the County Line will play.

To avoid piling miles onto his sleigh, Santa will arrive at 5 in a fire truck.

Chris Smith is at 707-521-5211 and chris.smith@pressdemocrat.com.