According to Huntington Beach City Historian Jerry Person, the Huntington Beach High Bell Tower was built in 1926 in Lombard Romanesque Revival that was very popular at that time. It was designed by Allison and Allison architects in Santa Ana. In 1976 the rest of the school was torn down except the auditorium and music buildings. They wanted a more modern looking School.
Huntington Beach Union High School District President Dr. Duane Dishno said the Tower was built by the same architect who designed Newport Harbor High School’s Bell Tower. It was designed to represent the School District as a “Pillar of Academics” and to represent the dedication of the Governing Board’s commitment to the students of the area served by the district, and to excellence of our educational programs. The Tower was refurbished and earthquake retrofitted in 2009. The Tower Bells rang in 2006, in recognition of one hundred years of service to the students and their families in the communities of Huntington Beach, Fountain Valley and Westminster. In 2021 with the perseverance and dedication to the Huntington Beach High School Foundation and the Huntington Beach High School PTSA, funds were raised to repair it and to have them ring again; this time forever in the future!
Huntington Beach High School freshmen Matthew Finston and Mason Schwartz commented on how the bells help them get to class seven minutes from when they ring.
Huntington Beach High School Graduate/Navy Seal/best selling author Chad Williams said: “The Bell Tower is a symbolic staple of our city.”
Huntington Beach Realty Office Manager Kimberly Bolen-Myszka, a Huntington Beach High School graduate, said: “I love the Bell Tower and the architecture as a whole, it gives the school so much character.”
Huntington Surf & Sport owner Aaron Pai said his son Taylor reminisced that once he and his surfer buddies climbed the scaffolding around the Tower when it was being reconstructed all the way to the top late at night when nobody was around. “Taylor told me that it was one of the most beautiful and amazing sites and that you can totally see all the stars and all the ocean from up there,” Paid said.
Huntington Beach Artist Bill Anderson, whose daughter and granddaughters went to Huntington Beach High School, said this classic Tower is one of the few landmarks from old Huntington Beach and is visually historical and aesthetically beautiful, so he had to paint it.
