Time capsule discovered during church demolition

This sealed copper box, 10 inches long by 8 inches wide by 8 inches tall, was discovered at a construction site in Berkeley last week. Photo: Bill Schrader Jr.

A construction crew taking its first steps to prepare an old community church for demolitiondiscovered a time capsule from 1948 hidden inside the wall behind the church cornerstone last week.

The sealed copper box initially stumped its finders, said Scott Allen, site superintendent at 2024 Durant Ave., the location where anew apartment housing development calledThe Durantis slated to be built.

Last Monday morning, Jan. 13, at about 11 oclock, Allen said the crew was just beginning work on the first day of the project to demolish the old church, Durant Avenue Presbyterian. Developer Bill Schrader Jr. had given firm instructions to remove the church cornerstone, which includes the buildings name and construction date, to save the granite marker for inclusion on the new project site.

Wewanted to get that out and protect it and keep it safe so we didnt have any complications later, said Allen, who works for Sacramento-based Brown Construction. When we removed it, there was a copper box on the back. Wewent to knock it off, or pull it off, and it wouldnt move.

At first, everyone was perplexed. The box was soldered shut, and had no visible damage.

Allen said no one was really sure what the box was or what to do with it, when he suddenly remembered hed seen something similar once before during a demolition project in New Zealand. Allen said a time capsule had been found on the back of that buildings cornerstone. But he said he hadnt seen anything like it stateside during his 12 years in construction.

He told the group what he thought, and there was an immediate reaction.

Everybody was excited from myself to Bill Schrader to the building inspector to the guys, the demolition crew that was there, said Allen. Most of these people had never seen this before. It came as a shock to most of them.

Removing the name plate for the church, to the left of the doorway, was the first step in the process. Photo: Scott Allen

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Time capsule discovered during church demolition