By
Helen Johnson
(article from the "Southland Magazine", a Sunday
feature section of the Long Beach Independent-Press Telegram)
[Photo caption:] Assembled by a Long Beach watchmaker, this
unusual clock fascinates viewers.
All clocks cannot be as well known or as much talked about as the 96-year-old Big Ben, which still is London's most notable landmark. But scattered over the world and our own United States are many unique and interesting time pieces.
One such has been made a part of Knott's Berry Farm, a few miles east of Long Beach on Hwy. 39 in Buena Park. The clock stands in the Rose Garden in the Ghost Town area of the farm. Enclosed in a lattice-fenced area, it looks like a monument.
The clock is an all-electrical piece. It was devised to record the time, the day, month and year. And on one side has a series of little clocks set in a circle which give the time of day in 13 countries.
Andrew Dreger Sr., a Long Beach watchmaker, designed and built the clock in 1928 and completed it five years later. Dreger liked to think of the "depression" years as well spent in doing something he enjoyed and leaving something worthwhile to posterity.
Dreger's workshop was at the rear of his home on Anaheim St. It was there he spent many long hours until the clock was completed in 1933. Then he set it up in front of his home where for almost 20 years it was viewed and admired by passersby. After Dreger's death, his daughter. Mrs. Lucille Barton, tried to interest the City of Long Beach in accepting the clock as a museum piece. For some reason the city did not cooperate and when the home was sold, the unique clock went with the property.
The new owner, Carl Crothers, offered the clock to Knott's Berry farm and the offer was accepted.
