New London — After several unsuccessful attempts that nearly led city officials to give up, masons have uncovered and chiseled out a century-old time capsule from the cornerstone at City Hall.

Unopened, the copper box was placed back into its crypt until a public reveal of its contents at a Nov. 16 ceremony that falls on the 104th anniversary of when the cornerstone was laid. The box is expected to contain mementos from when the building was renovated and expanded in 1912 — copies of the city charter, daily newspapers, stamps and coins, among other artifacts.

Tom Bombria, the community development coordinator and project manager for an upcoming City Hall renovation project, said he expects a new capsule will be placed to kick off construction. Just what will go into the new box has yet to be worked out.

Artifacts in the original time capsule are likely to be put on display at City Hall. The handling and removal of the contents will be overseen by the New London County Historical Society.

“This could be a Geraldo event,” Bombria admits, a reference to Geraldo Rivera’s anticlimactic opening of Al Capone’s vault.

The quest to find the capsule started in June in anticipation of the start of a $3 million historic renovation of City Hall. Officials had hoped to access the box and retrieve the original plans for the building to aid the architects. The plans never were located.

Architectural Preservation Studio PC was hired several years ago to conduct a condition assessment of City Hall, and worked without the original plans to create a 130-page conceptual plan.

After receiving input from city officials on the design, those plans are expected to go to bid sometime next month.

The discovery of the time capsule came after at least three attempts to locate and access the copper box through layers of plaster, brick and finally limestone accessed through a wall inside the city clerk’s office.

The capsule was found on Oct. 15 in a cavity burrowed out of the massive 5-foot-long limestone cornerstone of the building thanks in part to the persistence of Loring & Son Masonry Restoration.

Masons had been at City Hall on four different occasions, drilling holes and chiseling into the wall. Even ground-penetrating radar could not accurately locate the box.

“I was ready to give up and forget about it,” Bombria said.

But after the third attempt, Bombria said, Scott Loring performed research on his own to discover that there were occasions when time capsules were sometimes placed on the bottom of the stones. The box was found sitting on the on the granite foundation with the cavity chiseled from the bottom of the cornerstone.

That cornerstone is to be repaired before restoration work begins.

All employees working at City Hall will be moved during the yearlong renovation and relocated to two floors to be renovated at the U.S. Post Office across the street.

The renovations are extensive and expected to match original designs as closely as possible while adhering to present day building requirements and codes.

Carl Rothbart, the project manager for Architectural Preservation Studio, recently made a presentation to the City Council.

The work will include restoration of outside walls and the addition of entrances that are compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Original lighting fixtures will be restored, along with railings and fire escape repairs.

Inside, plaster will be restored and painted and carpets and tiles will be removed to reveal original hardwood floors. The elevator will be relocated, opening up the center of City Hall. All of the wood doors and woodwork will be refinished and office spaces reorganized.

The work also will include updated wiring and plumbing and an energy-efficient heating and cooling system.

Bombria said the city expects to have someone hired by January and work to begin shortly after.

g.smith@theday.com