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The drill hall
The oldest clock tower in Japan began as a drill hall
The tower was built in 1878 and is all that remains of the drill hall of the former Sapporo Agricultural College, now Hokkaido University. It is the oldest clock tower in Japan.
The design
The wooden building is of American design
The building is of American design and is one of the few surviving Western-style buildings in Sapporo, a city developed in the 1870s with assistance from the American government.
The clock
The clock came from Boston in 1881 and still keeps time
The clock was installed in July 1881 by E. Howard & Co. of Boston, Massachusetts, and was used on 12 August 1881. It continues to run and keep time, and the chimes can be heard every hour.
Listed
Since 1970 the tower has been an Important Cultural Property
In 1970 the tower was designated an Important Cultural Property, and in 2009 it was certified as Mechanical Engineering Heritage of Japan. It now houses a museum on the history of the Agricultural College and the development of Sapporo.
Day 1, midday
It comes after Odori Park. Then Sapporo Beer Museum.
More stories from this trip idea
The words are a retelling of the Wikipedia article Sapporo Clock Tower, and are shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. They are checked against those articles, and a fact that is not in them is left out.