The May Company clock has been a signature feature of the building since it opened. The original May Co. building also had a clock tower. The current clock originally sat on top of the six-story department store, but to keep up with the anticipated increase in competition when Higbee's left its Playhouse Square area location to move across Ontario Street from the May Co. upon completion of the Cleveland Union Terminal, May Co. undertook a major expansion that added two new floors, including an atrium inside. Exterior terra-cotta telework matched the existing building below, and the clock was raised and reset atop the eighth floor. As this ad suggests, the department store, upon "opening" in 1931, styled itself the "Greater May Co." Indeed, it became Ohio's largest department store. | Source: Plain Dealer, Nov. 8, 1931Download Original File
