Storybrooke Free Public Library

The Clock Tower, also known as the Storybrooke Library, is a Storybrooke location on ABC's Once Upon a Time and Once Upon a Time in Wonderland. It first appears in the first episode of the first season of Once Upon a Time.

History
When the Evil Queen cast the curse, she imprisons Maleficent in her dragon form deep below the surface in a cave under the clock tower's first floor library in the town of Storybrooke. Time becomes frozen, and none of the trapped residents can age or are aware of the restraints holding them in place. The clock tower's hands never move, and stay stuck at 8:15. The mayor, Regina, is the only one of two people to keep old memories from a previous life in the Enchanted Forest. She has an adoptive son, Henry, who believes in the curse. One day, he leaves town and returns with his birth mother, Emma. They stop outside the library and when Emma looks up to see what time it was, she notices the clock is frozen. Henry quickly explains to her how, in his whole life, that clock had never moved, because of the curse. While outside the library, Henry's therapist, Archie Hopper stops to talk to the two and asks if everyone is alright.
 * -|During the Curse=

When Henry explains that he is with his real mom, Archie asks where he was that day because he missed his session with him. Henry tells him that "he went on a field trip" and Archie advises him that lying--giving into one's dark side--never accomplishes anything. When Archie leaves, Henry explains that everyone trapped within the town does not remember what had happened or their past lives in the Enchanted Forest. Henry believes that simply bringing Emma back to Storybrooke would make time move forward as he also strongly suspects she is the savior who will save everyone. He pleas with her to stay in Storybrooke for a week, and perhaps then she will believe in the curse. Emma quickly bonds with Henry, and is undeterred when Regina warns her to stay away from her son. Only then she decides to take Henry's advice and checks into the bed and breakfast for a week stay.

At his bedroom window, Henry is staring intently at the clock face of the tower. He watches as the minute hand moves ahead one minute, and smiles in realization that Emma is staying in town after all.

The next morning, Regina is shocked to hear the clock tower chime for the first time. On her way to work, she glares at the clock, and is in disbelief that time is moving forward. Archie, on his daily walk with Pongo, comments in wonder if someone finally fixed the clock.

To save Henry from the curse, Mr. Gold instructs Emma to bring back a true love potion he hid in the belly of a beast in his previous life. Emma and Regina enter into the first floor of the clock tower, which is an abandoned library. There is an elevator that goes down one floor, and Regina operates the switch while Emma steps in. The beast she battles is a dragon, and after piercing the creature with a sword, it explodes with the remaining potion ready for collection.

Belle has a fight with Mr. Gold and moves out to live elsewhere. The diner waitress, Ruby, offers her a room at the inn and also suggests she take a look at the boarded up library. Belle goes to the clock tower, and sneaks a few peeks at the first floor from the outside windows, which reveal many stacked up and shelved books inside. A stranger, William Smee surprises her by asking for change. She replies she has none, but William suddenly grabs and kidnaps her to another location. Her father, Moe, asked William to bring her to him. He is unhappy Belle is still with Mr. Gold, and makes William send her down a mine shaft car in the hopes of crossing the town border and losing her memory. Belle is rescued by Mr. Gold, but she wants nothing to do with him. Ruby shows her a key to the library someone left for her. Mr. Gold wanted Belle to have the key, and though Belle is grateful for the gesture, she doesn't want to go back with him. Mr. Gold finally opens up to Belle, and admits he wants to retain magic because he wants to find his son. Belle decides they can start over, and invites him to join her for a hamburger snack at the diner.
 * -|After the Curse=

The town mechanic, Billy is killed in a gruesome fashion, and because the first curse-free wolfs time just passed, everyone suspects Ruby of having transformed into a wolf and mauling him to death. District attorney Albert Spencer rallies the angry townspeople and calls for Ruby's head, but temporary sheriff David continues to protect her from harm. In fear the townspeople will storm the sheriff's office jail cell where Ruby is being kept, he hides her in the clock tower. Ruby thinks she killed Billy, and in place of herself, she chains Belle down so she can be punished by the townspeople. The hunt is put to a stop when David and Granny find evidence Albert framed Ruby for his own crime.

Belle polishes and cleans up the library, and one day, receives a visitor whom she recognizes as Hook. She runs from him, but is not able to escape the library. Belle pins Hook underneath a bookcase and hides in the elevator while she calls Mr. Gold for help. Hook uses his hook to break into the elevator, but he is no match for the dexterity of the elevator.

Regina visits an amnesiac Belle in the hospital, and uses magic to force her unconscious. Then, she rummages through Belle's pursue until she finds a binary number for a book that presumably guards the location of Mr. Gold's dagger. She, Cora, and Hook search the library shelves for the book. After realizing the book is gone, Cora find a map in its place which Hook is able to translate. They discover the location of the dagger and are about to leave when Cora flings Hook to the side with her magic and she explains to Regina that they will use the dagger to control Mr. Gold to kill David, Mary Margaret and Emma.

Through communication with Emma, who was given the true location of the dagger by Mr. Gold, which is hidden on the minute hand of the tower's clock face. Mary Margaret and David manage to retrieve the dagger, but Cora and Regina threaten Mary Margaret with Johanna's death if she does hand it over. Regina takes out Johanna's heart and begins crushing it while Johanna cries out in excruciating pain. Mary Margaret cannot bear to watch Johanna die and surrenders the dagger. Satisfied, Regina shoves the heart back into Johanna's chest while Cora picks up the dagger. Mary Margaret is open with waiting arms as Johanna rushes to her, but Cora cruelly kills Johanna by flinging her out the clock face.

List of Locations
For detailed location information, please see the list of Storybrooke Clock Tower locations.

Trivia

 * The top two layers of the clock tower (including the clock) are visual effects.
 * In "Pilot", the sign for "Storybrooke Free Public Library" is a green house-shaped structure, but in "The Thing You Love Most", it is changed to a white rectangular sign.

Appearances

 * The Storybrooke Clock Tower appears on the postcard in "Broken".

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