April 26, 2009

Update to last June's June 30, 1949 entry:

I received an email from the Onondaga Historical Association's Dennis Connors on Friday that the time capsule has been found!

Dennis said that although they did not have luck finding it before demolition of 321 South Warren Street started, it was spotted on Friday by a demolition backhoe operator, when the building was about 80% demolished. Apparently the capsule is still sealed and the OHA is going to ask the public via a Post-Standard opinion poll whether it should be opened now or if the original intent should be honored and wait until 2050.

While I suppose there may be some honor in waiting until 2050, I frankly don't see it. The capsule was buried with the intent that it would be opened on the 100th anniversary of the bank. The bank itself was gone less than a decade later due to mergers, and now, the city has demolished the building as well. What exactly would be celebrated upon its opening in 2050? A structurally sound building that was destroyed 41 years earlier for a parking lot? It would be like holding on to a time capsule buried in one of the urban renewal casualties and opening it today.

Of greater concern is that according to the original list of items put in the capsule (as printed in the Post-Standard, January 22, 1950), there are "special films donated by WSYR and WHEN showing the progress of local television and local news highlights of 1949." Another article (Syracuse Herald-Journal, January 17, 1950) states the WSYR film is "several hundred feet of a 15mm movie film showing progress of WSYR-TV's construction to date." Shouldn't these be removed now, so they can be digitized? The capsule was (and apparently still is) sealed, but it was in a basement, and it's possible that the films may have degraded already. I would hate to think the city is losing valuable resources just to keep a nostalgic promise (especially considering the many others that have been broken).