The Central Library building in downtown Los Angeles turns 100 this year. And on Thursday, library staff kicked off a year-long celebration by opening a very old box buried during its construction: a time capsule.

The opening was historic because the contents haven’t been shown publicly until now. Here’s how we got here, plus some items that caught our eye.

A historical black and white photo from the 1920's, showing two light skinned men and a light skinned woman standing next to a wall. At the bottom of the wall another light skinned woman is crouched down, putting something inside a gap.

The Central Library cornerstone is laid on 5th Street, along with the time capsule, with City Librarian Everett Perry, and Board of Library Commissioners Frank H. Pettingell, Katherine G. Smith, and Frances M. Harmon-Zahn.

(

LAPL Institutional Collection

)

About the time capsule

In May 1925, more than 100 library staff members came together with the Board of Library Commissioners for an informal ceremony to dedicate the Central Library’s cornerstone, which is a giant limestone block on the outside.

Keep up with LAist.

If you’re enjoying this article, you’ll love our daily newsletter, The LA Report. Each weekday, catch up on the 5 most pressing stories to start your morning in 3 minutes or less.

Inside a specially carved pocket in the stone, they placed a copper box filled with relics about the library and broader L.A. The 1881 time capsule from the California State Normal School, which previously occupied the land, was also put inside. (Fun fact: that school later became UCLA.)

Library officials weren’t even sure the box was still there — much less how to get it out. A team drilled a small hole into the grout to find it. From there, Todd Lerew,  special projects director at the Library Foundation of Los Angeles, said it took about a year to figure out how to remove it.

“ When we were doing our tests with a little borescope camera to locate the capsule itself, we also found that the wall behind the cornerstone was not structural,” Lerew said.

That meant it could be broken down safely. To get the box, they took out a couple of historic wall panels, capped off the plumbing and got to work busting down a wall in the men’s bathroom. It took about a week to get it out.

The box was made of copper, but had been custom-made and soldered shut on all sides. They had to cut into it with shears, Lerew said.

A rusted copper box has its top lifted up to see its insides.

The copper box, which had been soldered shut, had to be cut into with shears

Exploring the contents

No one knew what to expect inside the box. When it was opened, to much anticipation, it turned out to be a unique snapshot of L.A. in the 1880s and 1920s. Inside were dozens of documents, photos and keepsake items that spanned everything from government records to community memories.

There were annual reports from city departments, rulebooks, portraits of library leaders and even employee lists that included janitors. It had multiple editions of the city charter — essentially L.A.’s constitution — and a population count from 1881 on a small card that showed just 11,000 Angelenos.

Inside a glass container is a black and white photo of a woman wearing clothes from the 1920's, and two brown books which says Los Angeles Public Library Employees and LAPL Board of Directors

Some of the contents of the capsule

A scrapbook was also inside to document where the central library was before the main building (learn more about that here). It had newspapers from both time periods — including ones in Spanish, German and French. For some reason, the Normal School’s capsule included a copy of the Oshkosh Northwestern.

“ We’re still putting together why a newspaper from Oshkosh, Wisconsin, made its way into the 1881 time capsule, but I had a very puzzled look on my face when I pulled that out,” Szabo told the crowd.

Another oddity? The Normal School also had a memento from President James Garfield’s funeral, which happened in Cleveland, Ohio. He had been assassinated just months before the time capsule’s burial.

Lerew said the newfound contents are helping restore library records, largely because a devastating arson fire in 1986 destroyed a fifth of its collection at the time.

“ We’re constantly trying to fill gaps in our collections,” he said. “When we’re able to do that for our own institutional history, that’s such a special thing and doesn’t come along every day.”

The capsule’s next steps

The Central Library has centennial programming all year long — and the time capsule will be part of that.

A selection of the contents will be on display soon outside the literature and fiction department on the third floor. The rest will be stored in the special collections department, which you can make an appointment to see here.

And if you’ve ever wanted a chance to see a time capsule get made, the Central Library plans to create a new one sometime this year.