New London — Mayor Michael Passero wasn't sure what to expect from the 104-year-old copper box that was pulled from within the walls of the city clerk's office, but he was confident that it wasn't going to be a repeat of another famous historical reveal.

"I promise that this is going to be better than Al Capone's vault," he said.

After presentations from city community development coordinator Tom Bombria and historian Sally Ryan, Passero donned a pair of rubber gloves and carefully removed the lid. He reeled back as the smell of mold wafted out.

"When I first looked in it, it looked like a pile of mush," he said after the reveal. He was pleasantly surprised by what New London County Historical Society Executive Director Steve Manuel was able to find within the shreds of paper.

As Manuel explained to the audience of city officials and citizens, which packed the City Council Chambers and spilled out into the hallway, mold is the enemy when working with historical items. But for the next half-hour, he carefully peeled away disintegrated wax paper and envelopes to reveal newspapers, coins and documents that were last seen 104 years ago.

The copper box, which measured 6 inches by 6 inches by 14 inches, had been tucked away in a cornerstone of City Hall when it was rebuilt in 1912. Bombria said an article from a 1914 edition of The Day had been found that said a time capsule had been placed in the building on Nov. 16, 1912. The article indicated that the capsule contained coins, newspapers and other documents.

The hunt for the box started in June in advance of a $3 million renovation to City Hall. After multiple failed attempts to locate the box, Scott Loring of Loring & Son Masonry Restoration did some research and found that similar boxes had been placed on the bottom of cornerstones. It was located Oct. 15 in a cavity of one of the limestone cornerstones after chiseling through the wall of the city clerk's office.

Ray Dolan, grandson of City Hall builder Joseph A. Dolan, carried the copper box up two flights of stairs from the cavity in the city clerk's office to the Council Chambers.

Manuel carefully removed documents from the box, including the remnants of blueprints to the building and a few editions of The Day, which sold for two cents at the time.

"'Wilson has over 400 electoral votes,'" he read from the Nov. 6, 1912, edition, eliciting laughs from the audience.

"This box contains things that were important to the people at the time," he continued. "I'm holding a newspaper that someone held in their hands a hundred years ago, and they put it in this box."

Manuel also uncovered several coins, some of which had corroded on the documents inside, a copy of the city charter and a book containing the bylaws of Brainard Masonic Lodge. Member Ted Nelson, who serves as the Deputy Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Connecticut, said members of local lodges were at City Hall in 1912 to conduct the cornerstone-laying ceremony. Members from the Brainard, Union and Jepthah lodges attended the unveiling Wednesday night.

As renovations begin, the cavity in the cornerstone will be repaired, but a new time capsule will be placed inside before the hole is sealed, this time with a plaque to indicate where it is. Passero said the city has about a year to decide what to put inside.

a.hutchinson@theday.com