news-record.com

Q. I live in downtown Greensboro and had long depended upon Jefferson-Pilot to inform me of the outside temperature by means of its electronic sign at the top of its high-rise building. Lincoln Financial has discontinued displaying the temperature.

That strikes me as odd. It does display the time, but I don’t really need that. I wear a watch, after all, and so does nearly everyone else. I don’t wear a thermometer, however, and to my knowledge neither does anyone else.

I would like to know why LF has discontinued displaying the temperature and whether it has any intention of restoring that valuable service. So I am asking a reporter.

— Karl A. Schleunes, UNCG history department

A. Unfortunately, we have bad news to report. The popular — but not always dependable — digital display atop the Lincoln Financial building has been plagued by technical problems that cannot be fixed. That’s according to Sol Kovach, a spokesman for the company.

“Apparently the technology for the tower is old enough that the part that is broken is obsolete,” Kovach said. “So we had to omit that part from the display.”

The display, which has a long and storied history, will continue to feature the time and the company’s initials.

The former Jefferson-Pilot building is the tallest building in downtown Greensboro. Lincoln Financial bought out Jefferson-Pilot Financial in 2006.

For almost a century, Greensboro residents have been looking up at the former Jefferson-Pilot building. When the original 17-story building at Market and Elm streets opened in 1923, it was the tallest building between Washington and Atlanta.

In the mid-1950s, the U.S. Forestry Service built a watch tower on top of the 245-foot building. For years, it served as the watch point for forest fires across the Piedmont and was the highest point used anywhere in the U.S. by the forestry service.

It took 200 bulbs to light up the original time and temperature display that was installed about 1955.

The pyramid topping the newer 20-story twin tower was installed in August 1989. The next month, workers placed the new digital display atop the 375-foot building.

Company executives declined to say how much it cost but gave a hint: “Someone has said for the same amount of money, we could have bought everyone in Greensboro a wristwatch.”

A bundle of old newspaper clippings shows that Greensboro residents have noticed when there were changes or irregularities with the time and temperature sign over the years.

This headline ran in the April 29, 1988, newspaper: “Temperature sign has a HOT flash.”

The temperature that day, according to the not-so-trustworthy display: 179 degrees.

— Betsi Robinson and Diane Lamb