Note attached to top of capsule containing Home Elementary 1950 rededication tape. Signed by solderer, with comments 'National conditions: stinky. World affairs: muddled"
/ photo by action news photojournalist Craig McDowell
1950 cornerstone at Homer Elementary yields surprises
By Laura Hand
Tuesday, February 10, 2009 at 7:09 p.m.
No one expected to find anything inside the 1950 cornerstone when Homer Elementary's renovations began, but construction worker, Mike Shippee, found not one, but two copper boxes, soldered closed. "I was chipping around the stone" says Shippee, "when I saw the small box on top of it. We started prying up the stone and found the second, larger box underneath the stone."
The little box yielded a reel-to-reel audio tape of the 1950 dedication ceremony. It's been digitized and transferred to a disc. The larger box includes newpaper clippings pictures and more. "This is truly a treasure trove from both 1893 and 1950," says Homer superintendent Douglas Larison.
The 1950 materials include class lists from the elementaries, pictures of teachers, a mimeographed school budget proposal (yes, in purple ink) and newspapers, including the announcement of Thomas Dewey's re-election as Governor. 1893 paperwork was obviously carried over from the previous cornerstone and renovation of the old Homer Academy, and included old newspapers and pictures, as well as old textbooks. Superintendent Larison says the books were written by people who had taught or were teaching at Homer Academy. It was common for teachers of the time to compile their work, in part to send out to the many one room schoolhouses. And, the 1950 renovation and expansion was done, as part of the consolidation effort, to centralize those one room schools under one roof.
The materials in the time capsule are yellowing and turning brittle while they're in offices. Plans are for a Rochester-area company to digitize the contents, to make them available for anyone who wants to browse the past. The School Board will be asked to re-bury the originals, along with 2009 materials (including this story) in the 'next' time capsule when current renovations are completed.
