Things Fall Into Disrepair Again
In 1976, Cranbury’s historic clock was in excellent shape. Thanks to the work of Cranbury Landmarks, the clock had been refurbished and provided with a new clock face. Equally important, its home, the Old School, had been refurbished and designated a National Historic Place. To top things off, the Cranbury Board of Education allowed Landmarks to lease office space in the building for $1 a year, provided that Landmarks managed the day-to-day operation of the building. It was truly a win-win for everyone and everything concerned, including the clock. Unfortunately, this arrangement didn’t last.
In June of 1990, the Board of Education evicted Cranbury Landmarks from the Old School. The reason, per an editorial by the Cranbury Press on June 27, 1990:
... the school board said it had no choice but to give Landmarks the boot, noting the school district is up for state re-certification in 1991 and the non-conforming lease might trip it up. That's possible, but it's surely no excuse for the overnight eviction. For one thing, the state monitoring for re-certification isn't going to start until next year. By that time, a proposed amendment currently in the state Assembly that would make legal the leasing of school properties to non-profit groups without bidding may be in effect — which would authenticate the Landmarks' lease.
Mahbubeh Stave of Cranbury Landmarks was the manager of the Old School at the time. The Cranbury Press reported on her final day in the Old School in an article on June 27, 1990:
She was usually the first one in the building. At 7:45 a.m., Mahbubeh Stave would unlock the doors, turn on the lights and look around to see if anything out of the ordinary had happened the night before. .. On Mondays, she would even go up in the tower and wind the clock. No longer will Mrs. Stave wind the clock on the old school building, and she's wondering who will. "I don't know who will take care of this place," she said.
Mahbubeh Stave
In truth, Landmarks had always had trouble finding people to consistently wind the clock. In an article in the Cranbury Press in 2001, Barbara Thomsen, former president of Cranbury Landmarks, mentioned it as a problem:
“We couldn't get volunteers every eight days to rewind it," said Ms. Thomsen. "We tried to get some of the local Boy Scouts to volunteer, but no one wanted to do it." According Ms. Thomsen, it was for this reason that the clock has remained inactive for almost 25 years.
Soon after the eviction of Landmarks, the historic clock was pushed aside and replaced with an electric motor connected directly to the clock face. For the first time since 1896, neither the E. Howard clock nor the McShane Foundry bell was in operation.