To say that the newest addition to the National Watch and Clock Museum will make a big impact is a bit of an understatement. At almost 19 feet tall, the two-dial Ansonia Street Clock (which the museum refers to as "Quincy") is by far the tallest timepiece housed in the building, located at 514 Poplar St., Columbia.

The massive clock also took a long journey to come to its final resting place, where visitors can see the clock in person and learn about its history.

"The Ansonia Street Clock was first erected in 1887," in Quincy, Ill., said Don Bugh, president of the Tower and Street Clock Chapter of the National Association of Watch & Clock Collectors (NAWCC). The clock traveled 5,000 miles from where it was manufactured in Brooklyn, N.Y.; to Quincy; to Memphis, Mo.; to Los Alamos, N.M.; to Tampa, Fla.; and finally to Columbia.

"It was such a rare clock that there was no question that it should be preserved in the NAWCC Museum for future generations to see," Bugh said.

The street clock is housed in the museum's newly expanded Public Time gallery.

"The Quincy Gallery extension to the Public Time gallery added over 500 square feet," Bugh shared. "The Ansonia Street Clock is such an important addition that the space is used exclusively to display Quincy, its separately displayed movement, along with documented history and photos."

The Quincy is the best of three surviving examples of an Ansonia street clock, and one of only two of its ornate design still in existence.

In April, 23 members of the Tower and Street Clock Chapter, NAWCC staff members and local NAWCC volunteers helped during "Quincy Week" to apply goldleaf to the decorative elements of the clock.

"On Saturday of that same week, the clock was erected in the new Quincy extension of the Public Time gallery," Bugh said. "For the first time in over 12 years, Quincy was standing tall again - and this time in its own dedicated space within the NAWCC Museum."

On July 25, a formal dedication of Quincy took place at the museum, with about 120 people in attendance. The ceremony included a ribbon cutting, the formal opening of the new Quincy extension and a program on the history of the clock.

"Standing next to nearly 19 feet of a gilded, ornate, ticking street clock is something you won't soon forget," said Laura Taylor, managing editor of the NAWCC. "The beauty and mechanics are mesmerizing. The museum is filled with thousands of clocks, pocket watches and wristwatches from around the world. You really do travel through time when you visit - you can see how timekeeping has changed over hundreds of years."

The museum houses approximately 13,000 timepieces, many of which are the most culturally and historically valuable examples of their type in the world. Recently updated and expanded displays include the Public Time gallery, the Hamilton and Bulova exhibits and the history of wristwatches exhibit. The museum is run by the NAWCC, a nonprofit member organization dedicated to preserving and promoting the art and science of timekeeping.

"Clocks and watches tell stories about the people who made them and the people who used them," Taylor said. "The National Watch & Clock Museum shares these stories so visitors discover the amazing art, science and history of timekeeping."

The museum is open Tuesdays through Sundays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information, visit https://museum.nawcc.org.