the Tan Clock Tower is no more.

Friends, we have lost a small piece of SL architectural history.

For the better part of three years, the little clock tower in Tan has successfully chimed on the hour, every hour. It has survived the relentless terraforming of its surrounding Sim. It was a locational landmark when flying through Tan was the only way to get to the northern continent and back again. It was stalwart in the mashed potatoed terrain and hodgepodge building practices around it. indeed, it was as much of an historical landmark that could have existed in SL, much like the beanstalk in Welsh or the Man Statue in Natoma.

It even survived the transition to 1.2, during the land anarchy that was imminent; a last-minute attempt at saving the land from under it from going public was staged in the forums. the barely active account holder arranged to keep it under control, allowing it to flourish for another two years.

And now, it's simply not there. Even the account behind it is gone.

Lost to the void, the little clock tower will never be seen again by passing people. The chimes will never be heard wafting across the air. Even the votebox, attached to the structure all this time, will never be clicked on.

It's been replaced by a metal sphere sitting on a 5x5x5 cube with a card texture on it.

Somehow I don't think it's a suitable replacement.

What an ignoble end.

LF

I'm sorry to hear. Where is a time travelling Delorean when you need one?

Just send Marty --



Damn you. I wanted that one.

Who was it owned and made by?

i would like to offer a moment of silnce, but i'm afraid the silence will be deafening in the absence of the Tan clock tower chimes.

instead, i simply..

/bow

This is just sad news.

Ralph Waldo Emerson - The Bell

I love thy music, mellow bell,
I love thine iron chime,
To life or death, to heaven or hell,
Which calls the sons of Time.

Thy voice upon the deep
The home-bound sea-boy hails,
It charms his cares to sleep,
It cheers him as he sails.

To house of God and heavenly joys
Thy summons called our sires,
And good men thought thy sacred voice
Disarmed the thunder's fires.

And soon thy music, sad death-bell,
Shall lift its notes once more,
And mix my requiem with the wind
That sweeps my native shore.

*observes a moment of silence.

My first parcel was close to that tower in Tan. (when land there was double price! OMG 2L$/m2!!!)

Had other neighbors as well, like Chris Omega, Nick Rhodes, Water Rogers, etc.

Miss those days, and sad to hear of the demise.

Apsinthion Protagonist built and maintained the clock tower. She was a very cool person, and one of the first people to try to teach me something (how to work a flight script) way back when I joined SL. I enjoyed owning land next to the clock tower in Tan for quite a while, even though Aps didn't spend much time there past about Jan. '04; I think a RL move made her pretty busy, and I've never seen her log on much since.

I'd almost forgotten that, back then, public land (yes, Virginia, there was once such a thing in SL) cost L$2/meter in Tan and Aqua, double what it cost anywhere else! Tan was a good place to own land in order to get traffic since it used to be the only sim connecting the old north side to the old south side of SL.

Wow, I'm really sorry to hear the clock tower is gone.

i logged on and found the tower gone and the land 4 sale where it was. i bought the land, since I own most of Tan, but i did not delete the tower. It was gone b4 i bought it.



u r wrong. The sphere and the box with the ace of diamonds on it existed next 2 the clock tower 4 a long time and did not replace it. I am told it (the sphere) was there for over 2 years as well. i liked the clock tower too and am sad it iz gone. if ne1 has a copy of it, i will put it in the same spot it was.

but plz dont try 2 imply i replaced it with the chaos theory gaming marker (sphere and card texture). that is simply a false uninformed statement.

Aww, that thing really was a landmark. It's going to feel different working in the Plum sandbox and not hearing the clock chime.

On a sidenote Ravenous, thanks for not going nuts are terraforming Tan sky high or weirdly. The water is nice to look at.

I have some small plots I liberated from the political moron in Tan. If anyone would like me to donate that to possibly getting the tower back, I'd be all for it.

For whatever reason, the tower not existing in-world is rather tragic. I've always thought that persistence is really half of what SL is. Without some kind of shared memory, places become meaningless.

You are right Beryl she was a really cool person-
Long for those early days when we all watched this amazing world take place.

As one of the earliest residents of TAN, I mourn the loss of that clock and of Aps herself.

Some things woud be nice to see forever but...

Love, Baccara

What other builds are out there that have been up for so long?

It's impressive it lasted as long as it did. The first land I owned was in Tan, and I only left eventually to find a bigger plot. For a long time Tan felt like a little enclave, and the permanence of the clock tower was one of the reasons (the permanence of some cool residents was the biggest). I suppose we could recreate it if people have pictures.

I'm guessing here because I'm not quite ancient:

The Maze in Rizal
The Flight Tower in Gray
The Gov's Mansion in Clementina
That Bouncing Red Balloon in Welsh

I've always liked Stellar's Beanstalk. I think it is in welsh, but I'm not sure....

There are some others too, I guess I'd be melancholy if they all eventually disappeared.

It should be possible to sort some database by date of creation and find the oldest objects still around.

I think the maze in Rizal was moved around and shuffled, even. It may be still there but when I started out, I remember seeing jetball in a different place as well. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

Awww it saddens me that it's gone, there is so little in SL that reminds of days gone by. I'm kind of sentimental though lol, I have my plot of land in Chartreuse that I got in a land rush (those were fun) when the sim first opened. I can stand there, look at the sim, and remember all the people and places that have come and gone. Luckily for me Neph and Neil have kept Chartreuse one of the most lovely sims to live in .

U dont have 2 do that. If any1 has the tower, I will host it at the exact spot it was for as long as i own the land and will offer it 2 another voluteer caretaker if i ever do sell. Right now, i have no planz 2 sell, and plus taggy would kill me in RL if i did lolz. k, maybe not kill but she would b pissed 4 sure.

i just need the tower and i will put it back up right where it was. does ne1 have a copy?

I think the problem is that the person who built the tower has been account purged from lack of login, that's why you got the land in the first place. Nobody has the tower, I'd wager. Perhaps you could build a little monument to it instead, or let someone else, like the OP. If anyone has a snapshot of it, run it through one of those fun filters that makes it all brown and old and cool looking and put it on a plaque. That or you could try and petition LL to dig it out of the bowels of the datebase, who knows, maybe it's still there! Too bad that'd be a hugely unsettling precedent, "This user is gone, let's give their content to someone else!"

u r probably right.

well, i will offer the spot if any1 wants 2 build a replica. i wish i could do more.

i was told the land went public. by the time i got it, it had a 11k price tag on it tho (816m).

I knew this was coming. Aps posted awhile back that she was not coming back on. Although I thought someone else was supposed to be taking care of the land. Guess not.


Wouldn't the Lindens be able to replace the tower? Surely they have the power to find it and replace it, don't they?

True, the spinning thing with a card and the pychedelic christmas tree have been there for years. Here is a picture from November 05.