Finally, Wayne County's 1878 time capsule is opened

ever since its accidental discovery last Friday inside a stone clad crypt in the northeast corner of the Wayne County Courthouse a tightly sealed copper box weighing about 20 pounds has become the talk of the area the 1878 time capsule deposited by the Masons on October 9th 1878 had been a source of intrigue during the past year as it had eluded the scrutiny of an army of restores that worked on a multi-million dollar exterior restoration of the edifice on Wednesday a standing-room-only crowd packed into Judge Mark Weiss courtroom to get a peek at the contents that had been hidden away for nearly 138 years but before that could happen a team of workers from WR restoration who had been key in doing the stonework on the building had to find a way into the tightly sealed container starting at 9:30 a.m. Jim wama lync vice president of cleveland-based WR restoration undertook the process of attempting to breach the heavy soldering that anchored the beautifully engraved lid to the bottom of the box working in the building immediately west of the courthouse and using a dremel tool with a cut-off wheel huama linked began working his way along the soldering joint a fraction of an inch at a time he was surrounded by the commissioners media company photographers and members of the Masons all leaning over his shoulders wanting to keep track of the progress being made as the minutes continued ticking toward the 11:00 a.m. public opening of the box the tools involved became larger and heavier including hammers and chisels some in the group offered a tongue-in-cheek bets on the eventual introduction of sledgehammers jackhammers and possibly explosives in the process shortly before 11:30 a.m. the lid was freed and without any of the contents being revealed the box was set before the crowd of about 150 waiting with bated breath the time capsule was born into the courtroom by a delegation of Mason's from Worcester Zevon Easy Lodge 33 in full dress regalia as well as Rick Shaw senior grand warden of the Grand Lodge of free and accepted masons of Ohio Shaw who is in line to become Ohio's Grand Master in two years said it was fitting the Masons participated in the opening of the time capsule as the Masons had been instrumental in depositing time capsules in many of the nation's buildings for more than 200 years including the US Capitol Wayne County sheriff Travis Hutchinson a high-ranking Mason who removed the time capsule from its niche last week described the experience as the honor of a lifetime the Wayne County Commissioners placed much of the responsibility for the handling of the time capsule contents in the hands of Mallory Hoss a Cleveland based archaeologist who spends much of her time in Plymouth England working with the ship's project from the ancient port of Plymouth hast said she believed the contents of the box which had been published in an October 17th 1878 news article would be found in pristine condition but she was wrong as the items were removed and recorded by Hoss many were found to be damp though none appear to have been ruined most seriously affected appear to be a stack of about 25 yellowing photographs of County officials of 1878 which were stuck together by moisture hast felt that they could be salvaged through months of dehumidification other contents and varying states of dampness were placed on acid-free paper after the contents removed over the course of an hour had been laid out on the table the remaining spectators were allowed to walk around the table to view and photograph them Commissioner and Obrecht said the county would follow the advice of Hoss in conserving the documents and would put the box and contents on exhibit the Commissioner said they are seeking ideas on what items to place inside a new time capsule to be installed in the building that time capsule could be deposited during rededication ceremonies for the courthouse later this year you

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Length: 4min 19sec (259 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 09 2016