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At the front of the supervisor’s office today hangs a clock that once established time for all of downtown Charlotte. Known as a Regulator Clock, this piece was wired to other clocks throughout the building, including the tower clock, to make sure all of the timepieces were consistent with one another.

Placing clocks in the dome of county courthouses became increasingly popular during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, as it became necessary to keep consistent track of time. As more and more Americans moved away from their rural, agrarian roots, something as simple as getting to work on time began to be more important. Instead of always looking to the sun for the time of day, most families began to base their life around the rhythm of clocks and watches.

The railroad industry also helped usher in modern time keeping by lobbying for the creation of standardized time zones. As people began traveling across the country, using “sun time” proved to be impractical, as in order to stay completely on time a traveler had to change his watch by one minute every twelve miles. By creating time zones based off Greenwich Mean Time, kept in England, the U.S. Government was able to regulate further the keeping of time in America.