In 1909 the Fullerton Woman’s Club felt there was a need for a clock in the new Fullerton Public Library built in 1907 with the help of philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. They embarked upon a series of money-making projects such as cake raffles, pie and ice-cream sales, musical concerts, and plays provided by local talent. With the $91 they raised, they purchased the solid oak grandfather clock from Montgomery Brothers, a Los Angeles jeweler, on March 24, 1909.

The old Carnegie Library was a beautiful building, but our fast-expanding city soon outgrew it. The structure was razed and replaced with the Federal Work Projects Administration (WPA) building that still stands at the northwest corner of Wilshire and Pomona. When the new library was completed in 1973 the clock was moved, once again, to its current home in the Carolyn Johnson Children’s Library at the Fullerton Public Library.