Delacorte Clock

1000 5th Avenue | Central Park

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The lot about 1940
About 1940. Via 1940s.nyc
The lot about 1985
About 1985. Via 80s.nyc

The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.

Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.

  1. 1965

    Delacorte's musical clock is dedicated after his Alice statue and theater gifts

    The Delacorte Clock was dedicated in 1965. Publisher George Delacorte conceived it on a European vacation, where he admired the elaborate glockenspiel and automaton clocks of medieval town squares, among them the Swiss Zytglogge. He proposed an automated clock to appeal to children to Parks Commissioner Robert Moses and paid for it. He had earlier funded the Alice in Wonderland sculpture in 1959 and the Delacorte Theater in 1962.

    Source: Wikipedia

  2. 1965

    Moses calls Delacorte a "practical romantic" as grandchildren unveil the clock

    At the dedication, the Sanitation Department band played the national anthem and Newbold Morris introduced Robert Moses, who praised Delacorte as a generous benefactor and recalled that the site was a dump before the park. Delacorte explained how the clock came about and described the search for a sculptor that led to Andrea Spadini. A poem about the hour striking was read. His grandchildren unveiled the sculpture, and after the clock chimed and the music played, there was some clapping.

    Source: wnyc.org

  3. 1965

    Texidor and Embury design an arcade for the clock; Spadini sculpts the bronze animals

    The clock sits on a brick-and-limestone arcaded gateway between the Monkey House (now the Zoo School) and the main zoo quadrangle. The Spanish artist Fernando Texidor and the architect Edward Coe Embury designed it, and Embury was the son of Aymar Embury II, who designed the Central Park Zoo. The Italian sculptor Andrea Spadini made eight bronze animals: a bear, elephant, goat, hippo, kangaroo and penguin that parade with instruments, and two monkeys with mallets beside the bell.

    “…the gateway was designed by Spanish artist Fernando Texidor and American architect Edward Coe Embury, the son of the Central Park Zoo designer Aymar Embury II.”

    Source: Wikipedia

  4. 1995

    The Central Park Conservancy restores the clock with a Delacorte family endowment

    In 1995 the Central Park Conservancy restored the clock, with the work paid for by an endowment that George Delacorte's family created. The Conservancy has maintained the clock since.

    “An endowment created by Delacorte's family funded the Central Park Conservancy's restoration of the clock in 1995.”

    Source: Wikipedia

  5. 2017

    The Conservancy replaces the clock's electrical system and goes digital

    In 2017 the Central Park Conservancy updated and replaced the clock's electrical system. The seasonal selection of music that plays as the six bronze animals rotate around the tower is now digital. At the top, two bronze monkeys hammer a bell, which sets off the track below.

    Source: centralparknyc.org

  6. 2023

    The elephant carries a tiny broom to sweep the clock's track

    Time Out's 2023 profile of the clock reports that a Central Park Conservancy preservation foreperson, A. Hamid, checks it every day and often twice a day in fall, clearing debris from the track with a leaf blower and a broom. He gets help from the parade's lead animal, the elephant, which has a tiny broom fixed beneath its platform to keep the track clear for the other members of the band. When the clock is down for repairs, Hamid has been known to dance for the children watching below.

    Source: timeout.com

Further reading

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