The lakelet was constructed in The Square, Palmerston North, in 1909 by the Beautifying Society. In 1953 Arthur Hopwood gifted the city of Palmerston North £10,000 to build a new tower in The Square to hold the clock and chimes removed from the Post Office after the 1942 earthquake. A cross was first erected on the top of the Clock Tower in 1960. Both the lakelet and Clock Tower were last refurbished as part of the 'City Heart' project about 2007.

At 6.30am, 26 March 2006, a gust of wind felled the controversial cross on the top of Palmerston North's clock tower. In 1981 a permanant cross was erected by the Palmerston North City Council, relacing the temporary cross erected each Christmas. The cross on the Clock Tower has generated strong debate in the city over the years as evidenced by frequent letters to the editor and Council debates. At the time of the felling, plans had already been made, and hotly debated, to refurbish the clock tower and to replace the cross with a lantern style cross. This subsequently went ahead in 2007.

A call by the Palmerston North City Council for suggestions for Clock Tower enhancements, resulted in six 'comic' ideas from cartoonist Fin, for the Manawatu Evening Standard.

Mike O'Donaghue, watch maker, looked after the mechanical workings of the clock in The Square from 1979. The faces of the clock stand 24 metres high and are reached by ladder. Originally housed in the Post Office tower (demolished in 1942) in 1906, the original mechanisms were still working well in 1989.