Today we’d like to introduce you to John Hoffman.
Hi John, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
At age 9 (1980) my mother took me to local household auction as my mom loved antiquing. There was an old time & strike mantle clock made approx. 1915 at this auction and for some reason I really wanted it. It sold pretty cheap and mom was able to buy it for me. I took the clock home and proceeded to take it apart, this was a spring driven clock and I had no idea what i was doing so I didn’t know the spring pressure had to be released prior to disassembly. As I was taking it apart the gears and pieces went flying in all directions. I don’t remember how but I heard of a neighbor which lived literally right behind us on the next street up that tinkered and worked on clocks so I was able to go see him. He helped me clean the movement and get it back together showed me how to oil it and it ran afterwords. This is what started my love of clock collecting and repairing. I still have this first clock mom got for me! Later in junior high school and high school I would run ads in our local paper for clock repair and my mom would run me around after school making house calls for clock repair. You can imagine some people gave me a hard time (no pun intended) when I showed up knocking at their door step as no one knew it was a little kid coming to fix their clock. Through high school and after graduating I went to work in our family business of manufacturing, packaging and distribution of bags of ice, Donohue’s Hilltop Ice Company which began business in 1914 at the hand of my great grandfather Ned ‘ Donohue. This business was very demanding through the summer months and consumed most of my time so I people would bring their clocks to me during busy months and then during winter months I would get busy repairing and returning them. We sold our ice business in 2018 mainly due to my parents health. Soon after I decided to officially open Hilltop Clock Shop in Cambridge and continue with my passion of collecting and repairing clocks.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Many challenges along the way (finances, family health etc) with the main challenge today being parts availability for these old clocks. Since the covid years many parts suppliers were small mom and pop operations which manufactured parts on a small scale. Many of these shops closed and did not resurface so parts availability is I would say the most difficult piece of the puzzle now.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I like to repair antique clocks mainly but work on just about any clock a client brings in but I like to do the highest level work possible. When done correctly a hundred plus year old clock can give another 100 years of service. There are many different levels of work “clock repair shops or individuals” do. Some shops do not do good quality repairs. I see all kinds of hideous repair work come through, I have a hall of shame section on my website showing the types of things I see daily and I always wonder did this previous repair guy have no idea how to correctly fix these issues or was he just in a hurry to get it out the door. I’m sure its probably a combination of both.
Before we let you go, we’ve got to ask if you have any advice for those who are just starting out?
The best thing someone could do which may be thinking of doing this type of work would be to find a mentor and try to work alongside him to gain hands on knowledge.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://hilltopclock.com
