Contents from a 1951 time capsule in Waynesville, Missouri, opened Wednesday revealed it actually was buried at a now-demolished school building in 1953.
Waynesville school superintendent Brian Henry used a pair of tin snips to open the 10-by-14-by-4-inch welded copper box in front of a crowd of 125 people that included members of the Class of 1951 and the Waynesville High School Student Council. The school broadcast the opening on Facebook Live.
Crews found the box during the razing of Roubidoux Center, which once served Waynesville’s school for elementary, middle and high-school students. Pulaski County, which owned the property, recently presented the box to Henry. Officials surmised the time capsule came from 1951 because a hollowed-out stone marked with that date contained the box.
The opened box revealed about a half-dozen pieces of paper — two 1953 copies of the Pulaski County Democrat newspaper, programs from the 1952-53 basketball season and a few school documents.
A Facebook post from the Waynesville School District explained the 1951 and 1953 discrepancies:
It is believed that while construction on the then Central Elementary School started in 1951, the building was not completed and occupied until the 1952-53 school year, based on information in “History of Waynesville School,” published in 1981. At the time, Central Elementary contained six elementary classrooms, a multipurpose room and the superintendent’s and assistant superintendent’s offices.
Newspapers from 1953, basketball programs, letters, an enrollment form and other items were pulled from the capsule, but the one that provided the clue was a letter from the Waynesville Re-Organized Schools dated March 4, 1953. It opened with this statement: “This school building was built by a grant of $154,000.00 by the Federal Security Agency with $50,000.00 State Funds and $20,000.00 District Funds.” […]
The contents of the time capsule will be scanned and placed online next week for viewing. The school district will work with the Pulaski County Historical Society to preserve the items for future generations.
Current-day Waynesville students collected items for a new time capsule to be buried at a later date. Items that will go into the capsule include a small bag of Cheetos, a package of Twinkies, a Waynesville sports jersey and T-shirt, a National Geographic magazine and a few other items.
(Facebook image from the Waynesville school district of superintendent Brian Henry opening the copper time capsule while a student shows one of its contents — a 1953 edition of the Pulaski County Democrat)
Here is my set of photos from the event
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1829808780424108.1073742086.100001850125240&type=1&l=b46e0d4c09
Am I missing something?
“It is believed that while construction on the then Central Elementary School started in 1951, the building was not completed and occupied until the 1952-53 school year”.
If the cornerstone is the the first stone put down, at the bottom of the wall system, and it’s placed in 1951, how do you, upon the completion of the building in 1953, add contents to it?
Seriously. I’ve never been involved with the construction of a building with a cornerstone like that. Is there access to the chamber from behind? A door, like on a safe? I always pictured a corner stone as being like a box, and there would be no access once the wall was on top.
Bouncing this off my wife, she asked “Wouldn’t the students of the class of ’51 (Graduated in ’51) know that they didn’t go to this school?
You bring up good questions that probably won’t be answered because the existence of the time capsule essentially was unknown during the building’s demolition and details about the cornerstone remain largely unknown because of the same demolition. They found the box amid the rubble and not in the cornerstone. The stone apparently was found later.
Note to self: Make time capusules out of copper.
It’s a interesting deal, Ron. Thanks for the story.