holy bethel church (1888) time capsule successfully extracted from cornerstone shortly before demolition

with the combination salvage and photo-documentation phase of the c. 1888 west side chicago holy bethel church (more often referred to as the adams street church) nearly completed, i'm now prepared to witness its heartbreaking death when the excavator begins demolition on monday. originally the demolition date was set for the 18th of february, but a tumultuous weather system packing a punch, with strong winds blowing across much of the city, pushed the death sentence back a few days.

before the building is brought down however, i was compelled to explore a lingering hunch, as i suspected a tin or copper capsule or box might have been left during the cornerstone ceremony held in late november of 1888. after an hour or two of exploratory surgery on area surrounding the building's deeply embedded cornerstone, exposed by removing portions of the structure's interior walls and carefully removing brick directly above the cornerstone, a small cavity was slowly revealed.

as the cavity grew larger with additional brick chipped away, i began to see the outer edges of the capsule along with a few business cards resting between the cavity wall and the metal box. the capsule retained much of its original baked black enamel finish, accentuated with fanciful gold pin-striping.

interestingly, a crude slab of limestone was used to "seal" or cap the cavity containing the capsule, but this crudity allowed for the "elements" to wreak havoc on both the box and its contents. i really struggled as to whether i wanted to save the actual cornerstone, but in the spirit of a "now or never" mindset, i chose to move forward and painstakingly chisel away at the backside of the the limestone block (engraved "a.d. 1888"). i managed to safely extract the box, containing a repository of paperwork placed there during the cornerstone "ceremony," held in november of 1888. the stone's exterior "face" could still be salvaged and used, but i was concerned, as the salvage wound down, with only an hour or two of daylight left, that the box and stone would be damaged one way or another during demolition. there was no written contractual agreement to remove the stone, and no one knew that a capsule would be found.

strictly speaking, the time capsule is really a "foundation deposit" since there is no intended date for it to be opened. surely its originators did not imagine it being found during a demolition of the building. rather than being buried inside the structure for a future generation, deposits in the foundation or cornerstone of a structure are related to an ancient tradition (traceable thousands of years back), presumably meant to consecrate the building, or leave a maker's mark of sorts during the first phase of construction.

in nineteenth century america cornerstone capsules are associated with freemasonry, and victorian commemorations of time. the ritual has many dimensions (especially in churches and other sacred spaces), the symbolic significance of cornerstones being that the first stone set in construction determines the position of the entire structure; the cornerstone is usually inscribed with the construction date, and/or names of significant individuals, and besides being engraved, most often contain a cavity in which a capsule or foundation deposit is placed, containing newspapers of the day or week, and other artifacts like coins, books, and business cards tossed in by people integral to the construction.

the box recovered from the church is tin, so prone to rust and water damage, though it did contain a lock. the hefty, weathered metal container was carefully pulled from the stone's cavity for later analysis and/or documentation. i waited some time to open it, feeling contemplative, pondering the weight of this spontaneous and symbolic find. upon opening, its contents appear to have been exposed to the elements, with several handwritten letters rendered illegible (the folded paper impossible to unfold without disintegrating), which is often the case if the capsule is not sealed right or a more weather-resistant material (i.e., copper) is not used.

aside from the items mentioned, the capsule contained more than 10 pieces of church-related ephemera, in various condition: a pamphlet titled "proceedings of the 44th annual session of the illinois conference in elgin, il", a cloth bound bible, a pamphlet on "the doctrines and discipline of the evangelical association," a heavily molded book of evangelical hymns, the year's june issue of the christian family almanac, august through november issues of "our visitor" (the  monthly church newsletter), a newspaper titled "the evangelical messenger" published in cleveland, ohio , november 1888 (by lauer & matill, vol 41 no 47), a manual of the evangelical church at 786 1/2 west madison street published by the missionary society (stewart & co., printers, 109 wabash ave), the november issue of the evangelical messenger in german (vol 53, no 47), and several faded handwritten pages.

overall the findings were an unusual piece of history to unpack. they offer a similar experience to finding "insulation" in the walls, where newspapers, business cards, and other such items crop up during the deconstruction of a given building. the collection of evangelical materials join related artifacts in the archive, including an 1893 time capsule recovered from the german zion evangelical society church building - since demolished - (located on hoyne street in chicago's ukrainian village), and a carved limestone cornerstone with recessed opening, salvaged from a chicago church demolished in the 1980's. like the other capsules discovered, i hope the chicago history museum or some other institution will express interest in the capsules, for the people of chicago to have access to. we shall see.