{"id":342236,"date":"2026-07-16T14:45:03","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T14:45:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/342236\/"},"modified":"2026-07-16T14:45:03","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T14:45:03","slug":"fifty-year-old-time-capsule-celebrating-americas-200th-birthday-opened-at-city-hall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/342236\/","title":{"rendered":"Fifty-year-old time capsule celebrating America\u2019s 200th birthday opened at City Hall"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mayor Buddy Dyer and other city officials gathered at City Hall\u2019s rotunda on the morning of June 29 to open a 50-year-old time capsule that celebrated the country\u2019s 200th birthday.\n<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

(JOSHUA-PAUL ESTABALAYA)<\/p>\n

The capsule, buried at Lake Eola Park<\/a>, contained an array of items that characterized Orlando in 1976, when the city\u2019s chapter of the Kiwanis Club<\/a> put it underground.\n<\/p>\n

Because the country was celebrating its bicentennial in 1976, one item was a plaque commemorating the occasion. Others included a letter from the Kiwanis Club\u2019s president at the time to the organization\u2019s current president; a proclamation by then Mayor Carl Langford; a bicentennial-commemorative license plate; cassette reels; a map of Central Florida; a flyer advertising theater productions at the Florida Technical University, now known as UCF; and a phone book that lists the area code as 305 rather than 407.\n<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

A flyer advertising theater productions by the Florida Technical University, now known as UCF, was part of the contents of a 50-year-old time capsule buried in Lake Eola Park and unsealed on June 29 at City Hall\u2019s rotunda. (JOSHUA-PAUL ESTABALAYA)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

A somewhat-damaged proclamation by then Mayor Carl Langford was among the contents of a 50-year-old time capsule buried in Lake Eola Park and unsealed on June 29 at City Hall\u2019s rotunda. (JOSHUA-PAUL ESTABALAYA)<\/p>\n

\u201cThis time capsule is a bridge to what our city was like 50 years ago,\u201d the mayor said during the event, adding that he graduated from high school in 1976. Dyer also said that since 1976, Orlando\u2019s population has more than doubled, growing from 116,000 residents to 340,000.\n<\/p>\n

Matt Kelly, current president of the Kiwanis Club, said the time capsule was discovered as renovations were underway at Lake Eola Park.\n<\/p>\n

Ashley Papagni, one of Orlando\u2019s public information managers, said in an email that the capsule was found more than a decade ago.\n<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Matt Kelly (third from left), president of the Kiwanis Club of Orlando, reads a letter from his 1976 predecessor. The letter was part of a time capsule buried in Lake Eola Park 50 years ago and unsealed in City Hall\u2019s rotunda on June 29. (JOSHUA-PAUL ESTABALAYA)<\/p>\n

\u201cThere wasn\u2019t any actual corporate knowledge with the Kiwanis Club of Orlando [or] with anybody that was involved [about] what this was,\u201d Kelly added. \u201cAnd through some good searches on Google, [we] figured out this is a time capsule.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

With the bicentennial time capsule opened, Kelly said that the Kiwanis Club should bury another capsule to be opened at the country\u2019s tricentennial.\n<\/p>\n

Papagni said in another email that city workers are still reviewing the time capsule\u2019s contents. Although the contents might become viewable to the public, Papagni said the city doesn\u2019t have plans to display them as of yet.\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mayor Buddy Dyer and other city officials gathered at City Hall\u2019s rotunda on the morning of June 29…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":342237,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[139,141,140],"class_list":["post-342236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=342236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342236\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/342237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=342236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=342236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=342236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}