Huntington Beach High School Clock Tower - Huntington Beach, CA
N 33° 40.627 W 118° 00.143
11S E 407081 N 3726807
Clock on a historical tower, part of the Huntington Beach High School campus.
Waymark Code: WM6T51
Location: California, United States
Date Posted: 07/16/2009
Views: 6
The tower, part of the historical Darryl Stillwagon Auditorium and Tower, was originally built in 1926, however, it did not get a clock installed until shortly before I began attending high school there in 1976. It was a gift from one of the previous alumni classes. There is only one clock face that faces the street. It chimes every fifteen minutes during school hours, and at lunch time, plays an assortment of popular tunes, carillion style. However the bells are recorded and the bell that can be seen in the upper Tower arches is faux (the chime speakers are in the lower arches).
I've lived within sight of this spire, off and on, since I was in second grade, and graduated from here in 1980. About a year ago, some pretty thorough renovations were completed on it (about 30 years since last done), and it now has a lovely new coat of paint with contrasting trim and a shiny new metallic-looking ball-and-point replacing the old concrete one at the top. I know I'm home when I see this.
By the way, if you've attended this school, you call it "The Tower," and one of the freshman jokes is that supposedly upper grades will try to sell you "Tower passes" to a room up there that doesn't actually exist. At least they did when I went there.
The Auditorium and Tower are on the Orange County Register of Historic Places.
Article on renovation
This tower is also a
benchmark on Geocaching.com; it'll be first on the list if you click the "Nearest Benchmarks" link below; it's a twofer!