City officials and Sault Museum representatives opened a welded metal time capsule found at the base of the large brick cross on the former General Hospital facade
A second time capsule has been discovered inside the former general hospital building, from a decade earlier than the last one that was found.
The September 1953 time capsule was found at the base of the giant cross designed in the brickwork at the front of the hospital, facing Queen Street East.
Members of the media were invited to record the opening of the metal pipe, which had been welded shut more than 70 years ago to act as the time capsule.
On hand for the opening were Mayor Mathew Shoemaker; CAO Tom Vair; Larry Girardi, project manager of port development at the City of Sault Ste. Marie; and Sault Museum executive director William Hollingshead, among others.
Inside was a copy of the Sept. 22, 1953 Sault Daily Star newspaper, some Catholic blessed medallions and scapulars, and a 1953 Canadian penny.
The time capsule also included documentation like the typed minutes from meetings concerning the expansion of the hospital at the time.
Three other newspapers were also inside, all dated Sept. 19, 1953: The Canadian Register Catholic newspaper, The Ensign and Ottawa Evening Journal.
An April 1963 time capsule was opened earlier this month, with similar contents.
Girardi said the timing of the two time capsules is interesting, the 1953 capsule was made just eight years after the end of World War II and the 1963 one was sealed just months before the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy.
“When you read the newspapers, you read them in a whole different mind,” said Girardi.
He noted the contents placed into the time capsule would have been items important to the Gray Sisters who ran the hospital at the time.
“It was a Catholic hospital, so they put Catholic scapulars in there, which normally we get when we have our first communion, and they’ve been blessed,” said Girardi.
Time capsules were found near the 1953 and 1963 cornerstones, Girardi said, but none were found near the 1907 cornerstone.
Girardi said the cornerstones have been saved from the demolition site and will be offered to the Sault Ste. Marie Museum.
“They’re quite heavy,” said Girardi of the stones.
Shoemaker said the most significant item found in each time capsule has been the typed meeting minutes.
“I’ve only flipped through them quickly, but what they wanted us to know is our community needed something — hospital expansion at the time.
“This is before Medicare, before OHIP came into place. This was community fundraising to help the local health-care needs,” Shoemaker said.
The meeting minutes show the community came together, similar to how it did in recent times to save the YMCA and establish the HART Hub.
“People rolled up their sleeves and it just shows that’s the history of our community,” said Shoemaker.
Hollingshead said the items found in both time capsules will be added to the Sault Museum’s permanent health-care exhibit.
Many time capsules are intended to be opened on a certain date, but both of the ones they found so far were not documented, he said.
Hollingshead hopes there is another time capsule in the ruins still waiting to be found.
“They did say they found the 1907 stone and there was nothing behind it. But these were undocumented, so you never know,” he said.