'Back To The Future' Storyline Plays Out In Real Life

FLOSSMOOR, IL — "SAVE THE CLOCK TOWER! SAVE THE CLOCK TOWER! Mayor Wilson is sponsoring an initiative to replace that clock. We at the Hill Valley Preservation Society think it should be preserved exactly the way it is... Don't forget to take a flyer."

One of the most memorable lines from the first "Back to the Future" movie from 1985 introduces us to the storyline of a downtown's giant clock tower having been struck by lightning 30 years ago and a movement by the community to get the clocks preserved and working again.

And that's exactly what played out recently in the village of Flossmoor, where civic, political and community leaders banded together to get the downtown clock tower working again more than three decades after it was actually struck by lightning. (Get Patch real-time email alerts for the latest Homewood-Flossmoor news. And iPhone users: Check out Patch's new app.)

"It was just like 'Back to the Future,'" Flossmoor Mayor Paul Braun (not Doc Emmett Brown) said. "There's been a tremendous positive response from the community since the clocks (there are multiple clocks on top of the tower) began working again. There was a lot of generosity from the community and it shows the great civic pride and belief in Flossmoor."

In all, members of the community raised more than $8,000 to get the clocks on top of a 1928-built building on Sterling Avenue back in order through a pair of fundraisers held during the summer.

The effort to get the clocks working again began about a year ago when former Flossmoor resident Walter McBride (not McFly) was often coming in to town often to assist in the care of his elderly mother.

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McBride remembered when he was younger having to look up to the clocks to find out what time it was and was not being happy to see that they weren't working. He then collaborated with Braun, the owners of the Flossmoor Station brewery who own the building that holds the clocks and others interested in returning them to their original purpose.

"It was easy for us to participate because there is a tremendous amount of pride among the community members in the downtown Flossmoor area," said Dean Armstrong, who owns Flossmoor Station with his wife Carolyn. "It's a unique community and people really take pride in it."

The clocks were back up and working a few days before the village's annual "Flossmoor Fest" event on Sept. 9, when one Flossmoor man even brought his DeLorean to mark the completion of the project.

"A local resident was nice enough to park the DeLorean near the clock tower and have it there for all to see on Flossmoor Fest," said Braun, also a member of the "Flossmoor Clock Committee" of eight that spearheaded the fundraising effort.

The non-functioning clocks in Flossmoor dated back to 1981, when a thunderstorm hit the area, lightning struck the building and the clocks immediately stopped working. Sound familiar?

"Lightning struck and it shattered to the ground," Braun said.

ALSO ON PATCH: Students At Stevenson High School Awed By DeLorean On Oct. 21, 2015, 'Back To The Future Day'

While Braun is a fan of the "Back to the Future" trilogy and has embraced his town's real-life connection to the story line, Armstrong is more impressed with the community effort to get the project going so quickly.

"I've never seen it," Armstrong said of the movie. "I'm not a big moviegoer. But the mayor and other members of the clock committee saw the connection. We are getting comments about it constantly at the brewery."

To Armstrong, whose Flossmoor Station Restaurant and Brewery takes up a historic building of its own in the former 1906-opened train station, says the working clocks are "a touch of class" to "an already classy downtown Flossmoor."

"We have absolutely incredible unique things here," he said. "It's like a little Bavaria with the look of the buildings."

The building that the now-working clocks are on includes businesses taking up the first floor and apartments on upper levels.

Armstrong's own brewery, located at 1035 Sterling Ave., had already made its mark as a noteworthy part of the proud community.

Flossmoor Station was selected in 2006 at the Great American Beer Festival in Denver as the "Best Small Brewpub" in America.

"We already had the best small small brew pub, and now we have the best village clock tower in America," Armstong said.

So take that, fictional Hill Valley, California.

Photo provided