While the windy weekend in question took place more than a month ago, I remember it clearly because it was just that: almost unbearably windy. With February 23 and 24 in South Bend came a system armed with 60-mph wind gusts — making for a rather memorable bout of mid-semester weather.
Our photo this week depicts one of the storm’s campus casualties. Passersby (including University photographer Matt Cashore ’94) noticed after the weekend that the clock above O’Shaughnessy Hall’s southwest entrance was missing a minute hand. The high winds had blown the appendage off the clock and, as maintenance workers later discovered, onto the roof of the O'Shaughnessy Gallery portion of the Snite Museum.
The maintenance department’s tin shop (bet you didn’t know we had one of those) got to work on the repair, and the minute hand returned to the clock on Friday, March 15, while students were on Spring Break. Crews arrived around 8 AM, and by 8:14, the process was complete and time went on as usual.
Though incidents like these are rare, Cashore has photographed at least one other missing minute hand in his years at Notre Dame. To read about the other time when time stood still, click here.
Photo of the Week highlights images of notable happenings on campus and in the Notre Dame family around the world. Have a snapshot you think we should see? Email scahalan@nd.edu to be considered for publication.
Hannah Scherer is an intern at this magazine.