The Stanford Clock Tower with its attached, colonnaded pergola is located at the so-called “Circle of Death” at the corner of Escondido and Lasuen Malls on the campus of

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

. It was built in 1983 by a donation from trustee William Kimball. It holds the mechanical clock, built in 1901 by the Seth Thomas Clock Company, which was originally housed in

Stanford Memorial Church Stanford Memorial Church (also referred to informally as MemChu) is located on the Main Quad at the center of the Stanford University campus in Stanford, California, United States. It was built during the American RenaissanceGregg, p. 34 by ...

’s large belfry. When the belfry collapsed in the 1906 earthquake, the university preserved the chimes in temporary structures near the church, where they continued to chime the hours. (During the 1950s and 1960s the chimes were heard to strike 13 times at noon, possibly the result of a student prank.) In 1983 the clock and chimes were rehoused in the current clock tower. The clock mechanism still needs to be hand-cranked twice a week. In 1997 a new temperature-compensating pendulum designed by engineering students was installed to eliminate errors in time-keeping caused by temperature changes. On May 10, 1983, when then-Stanford president

Donald Kennedy Donald Kennedy (August 18, 1931 – April 21, 2020) was an American scientist, public administrator, and academic. He served as Commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (1977–1979), President of Stanford University (1980– ...

unveiled the new clock tower, he burst out laughing: the clock's west face had been covered with

Mickey Mouse Mickey Mouse is an animated cartoon Character (arts), character co-created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. The longtime mascot of The Walt Disney Company, Mickey is an Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic mouse who typically wears red sho ...

's face and hands by an unknown prankster.Stanford Historical Society newsletter, Summer 1983

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Further reading