a pre-fire augustus bauer building: seeking time capsules, salvaging artifacts and photodocumenting its disappearance

for the past two days i've devoted morning, afternoon and evening obsessively thinking about anything and everything pertaining to an augustus bauer-designed building constructed in 1869. the arrival of souvenir hunters, the police, an alderman, and other, largely unhappy individuals coalescing into a rather unnerving and heavily distracting form of preservation backlash that has made my meticulous documentation of the historically important gethsemane missionary baptist church undergoing demolition emotionally draining to say the least.

the architectural artifacts i've salvaged thus far, (e.g., time capsule, date and/or informational limestone plaque, and a gargantuan keystone) have been successfully recovered and documented in the studio. the safely secured hand-carved keystone will likely find its way into the bldg. 51 museum, but the plaque and capsule belong in the chicago history museum or historical society's collection. i am mildly optimistic that they will show any interest. i will find out next monday when i make the call.

i've already taken at least 500 images of the building before and during its demolition. there is so much to disclose in terms of the raw building materials i have recovered, along with what was revealed when the demolition exposed more and more of the characteristics dating back to its construction in 1869. like the john kent russell house (1855), there will be several posts to follow as i continue to make sense of the information and images collected thus far.

remnants of the time capsule i discovered behind the limestone date plaque. i was surprised and equally disappointed that the diminutive box was comprised of steel. the time capsules i've removed from previous demolition sites with cornerstones were made of copper, which is a much more durable and weather-resistant material. clearly, the choice of using steel for the box resulted in damaging corrosion from the "elements." with the exception of the lock (another oddity), the box disintegrated when it was unearthed. even worse, the papers meant to be protected, were heavily stained and fragmented. from what i could discern, there was a single hand typed document pertaining to a "constitution" and a subsequent list of bylaws to be followed by gethsemane church members. there was no mention of the original time capsule from 1869, leaving me only to speculate on its whereabouts.

more to follow in coming days...

lightly incised limestone informational plaque

informational plaque taken at an angle for added dimension

detailed photograph of the plaque's incised lettering

a small group of building materials recovered from the pre-fire school. the gallery includes "cut" or square nails, early wallpaper, wood shingles, the oversized limestone keystone (original to the building) that was mounted above the side entrance, tie rod components, and an old growth "dimensional" white pine beam with unusual saw markings. many more "raw" building materials were collected, but await photodocumentation.