Century-old New London time capsule to be revealed next month
New London — A mason will delve into the walls of City Hall this weekend in an attempt to access a time capsule placed in the cornerstone of the building during the start of construction in 1912.
The exploratory work is being done prior to the start of a $3 million historic restoration project and in anticipation of a July 16 ceremony, when the time capsule will be opened.
Tom Bombria, the Community Development Coordinator and project manager for the restoration project, said the idea is to probe an area inside the building, in back of the limestone cornerstone, to find out if the time capsule can be accessed in the least disruptive method.
It’s unclear exactly what the mason might encounter in the wall, since the only known complete set of plans for the building may actually be in the time capsule.
Finding the plans, Bombria said, also will help architects who are now completing bid specifications.
“We’re anxious to get our hands on the original plans,” he said. “The more information we have, the better off we are.”
In the absence of plans, architects have drilled a few sample holes in the floors to determine what materials the contractors will encounter when they do things such as cutting holes for plumbing or attempting to relocate the elevator.
So far, Bombria said, there is more concrete than anticipated — 15 inches deep in some cases.
The cornerstone was laid on Nov. 16, 1912, in a program presided over by Mayor Bryan F. Mahan and other prominent city officials and citizens.
A May 13, 1914, article in The Day noted that the time capsule, a copper box, was deposited into a crypt of the stone and had included, among other things, copies of the city charter, daily newspapers, coins, stamps and “data of drawings and specifications of the new building.”
Bombria and Mayor Michael Passero said work is now underway to contact descendants of the people involved with the building so they might be part of the upcoming ceremony.
Passero said the time capsule will be opened for the first time during that ceremony.
“We’ll all find out at the same time,” he said. “We want to make sure the time capsule is opened in public. We’re not going to touch that thing.”
Both Bombria and Passero said they are not exactly sure what to expect when it is opened.
The documents could be intact but they also may not have survived 102 years, and the event could turn out to be something akin to the much-heralded opening of Al Capone’s secret vault by Geraldo Rivera.
The vault turned out to be mostly empty.
If the mason cannot access the time capsule this weekend, Bombria said plan B might be a little more complicated and involve removing mortar from the outside of the building and pulling out stones around the cornerstone.
The restoration work mostly will stay true to the original designs, though there will be modern improvements to make the building code compliant and up to standard with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
The work is being designed by Architectural Preservation Studio PC, whose firm is a collaboration of architects, preservationists and material conservators.
Some of the company's more high-profile projects include work at the Guggenheim Museum in New York and Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater in Mill Run, Penn.
All offices at City Hall will be moved when the work starts in January.
It is anticipated that city offices will move across the street to leased space in the newly renovated upper two floors of the U.S. Post Office on Masonic Street.
Contract negotiations still are underway.
The probate court, and potentially other city offices, may stay at the post office on a permanent basis.
Construction of the current building was completed in 1914. It was designed by architect James Sweeney to replace the smaller municipal building that had stood on State Street since 1856.
Articles in The Day describe with great detail the $166,000 building project where, in addition to modern steel and concrete construction, “one of the numerous attractive features of the new building will be a rest room for women visiting the city.”
The headline in the newspaper read, ”New London’s Handsome Municipal Building Bears Testimony to Progressive Spirit That Dominates Policy of This Thriving City.”
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