Spaces: Step Inside Whitman’s Clock Tower

By Zoe Perkins ’25

Memorial Building clock tower at sunset.

The Clock Tower is easily the most recognizable landmark on Whitman’s campus. For the past 125 years, it has watched over generations of Whitman students from atop Memorial Building, its bell tolling in constant companionship.

Memorial Building clock tower with snow falling.

Memorial Building clock tower with fall leaves.

Memorial Building clock tower as seen from a drone.

The many seasons of Mem. The iconic Clock Tower watches over Whitties as the seasons—and years—pass.

Located at the heart of campus, the Clock Tower is many people’s first impression of the college—although few ever get the opportunity to venture into the structure itself. Atop a staircase on the building’s third floor sits a lone door that provides access to the tower’s interior.

Just beyond the door sits the Memorial Chapel, once the site of religious services, glee club concerts and debates. Now a storage space, the pews are stacked in one corner, and the bell’s old tolling hammer is tucked away with desks of years gone by.

The inside of the Memorial Building chapel circa 1924.

Stepping back in time. The chapel inside Memorial Building circa 1924. (Source: Whitman College and Northwest Archives.)

In the bell room, the original bell from the late 1890s now operates automatically, continuing to ring across the Walla Walla Valley as it did more than a century ago—180 times a day, 5,400 times a month, 65,700 times a year.

A piece of history. The Clock Tower bell reads “McShane Bell Foundry. Baltimore, MD. 1890.” (Photos by Patrick Record.)

A ladder in the corner leads to a room with clock faces on each of the four walls. Once turned by mechanical clockworks that had to be wound every eight days, an electric-powered machine now turns the hands, marking each of the precious minutes we spend at Whitman College.

(Photo by Patrick Record.)

The Clock Tower Through Time

Ready and waiting. A photo circa 1900 shows the tower before the clockworks were in place. (Source: Whitman College and Northwest Archives.)

Early days. A panoramic photograph of Memorial Building in 1915 shows cars parked along Boyer Avenue and beside the building. (Source: Whitman College and Northwest Archives.)

Collage of two image from inside the clock tower.

Clock Tower belles. On the left: Marguerite Swede Anderson Church ’49 poses with the clock tower bell circa 1947. (Source: Whitman College and Northwest Archives.) On the right: Zoe Perkins ’25 recreates the historic shot in 2025. (Photo by Patrick Record.)

Climbing the Tower

For Zoe Perkins ’25, venturing inside the clock tower was near the top of her Whitman bucket list. Read her story.