About Bromo Seltzer Tower
Look closely at the enormous clock near the top of Baltimore’s Bromo Seltzer Tower and something is wrong with time. The face has positions for twelve numbers, but the numbers are gone. In their place, twelve letters spell BROMO-SELTZER around the dial.
The fifteen-story tower was built in 1911 for Captain Isaac Emerson, whose company manufactured the headache remedy Bromo-Seltzer. Architect Joseph Evans Sperry modeled the building after Florence’s Palazzo Vecchio, but Emerson added advertising on a scale that overwhelmed the inspiration. The four-dial gravity clock advertised the product every hour simply by existing.
The original skyline was even stranger. A 51-foot steel replica of a blue Bromo-Seltzer bottle rotated on top of the tower and glowed with hundreds of lights. The official tower history says it could be seen from about twenty miles away. Structural concerns led to the bottle’s removal in 1936, leaving Baltimore with the comparatively restrained sight of an enormous clock that spells a drug name.
The clock still works, and the restored building now contains artist studios, gallery spaces, and the Emerson/Maryland Glass Museum with a large collection of Bromo-Seltzer and Maryland glass bottles. Public access is limited to scheduled times, with separate clock-room tours offered on certain days. Check the official visitor page before going. The bottle may be gone, but the building is still a 1911 advertisement tall enough to alter a city skyline.