delacorte clock
The Delacorte Clock is a beloved attraction featuring an animated seasonal musical soundtrack.
The Delacorte Music Clock, located on the path between the Central Park Zoo and Tisch Children's Zoo, is a park favorite and especially loved by kids.
Every half hour between 8 AM and 6 PM daily, six bronze musical instrument-playing statues of animals rotate around the clock to a song. Typically, the songs that chime from the clock are classic children's nursery rhymes, but during the holidays the soundtrack changes to a collection of Christmas carols to go with the season.
The whimsical, bronze animal sculptures that adorn the Clock include a goat playing pipes, a kangaroo (plus a baby kangaroo) blowing into a French horn, a penguin on drums, a bear with a tambourine, a hippo playing violin, and an elephant with an accordion. At the very top of the Clock, there is also a set of two monkeys with tiny mallets to ring a bell.
The animals were all created by Italian sculptor Andrea Spadini, whose signature can be found at their base. Each turns on its own axis as they all rotate around the Clock together on a track.
The Clock was modeled after the musical clocks that magazine publisher George T. Delacorte saw while traveling in Europe.
The Clock was dedicated and unveiled in 1965. In 1995, the Central Park Conservancy supervised a restoration of the Clock and sculptures, financed through an endowment established by Mr. Delacorte's family in 1993.
In 2017, the selection of music became digital when the Central Park Conservancy updated the electrical system of the Clock.