Ceremony preps time capsule for reburial
Massachusetts officials on Wednesday prepped a 220-year-old time capsule for its reburial underneath the State House after their addition of modern coins and a new silver plaque.
Rediscovered last year, the time capsule and the cornerstone are scheduled to be re-deposited on Thursday.
Three additional stones, removed last year along with the time capsule, will be added back to the State House foundation on Thursday and Friday, according to Susan Knack-Brown, principal at Simpson Gumpertz & Heger, which is working on the project.
Beacon Hill leaders watched from the steps of the State House as members of the Grand Lodge of Masons performed the ceremony, pouring corn, wine and oil onto the cornerstone, symbolizing nourishment, refreshment and joy in an old Masonic rite.
Gov. Charlie Baker was introduced through cannon fire provided by the National Guard. The 19 blasts caused the trees at the top of Boston Common to violently shake.
"This sliver of history was discovered on a whim during a construction project, and shocked historians and the people of the Commonwealth alike," Baker said Wednesday.
The capsule, containing silver and copper coins, was first buried in 1795 by Gov. Samuel Adams and Paul Revere, 15 years after Massachusetts adopted its state constitution. At the time, Revere was the head of the state's Freemasons.
Gov. Henry Gardner and Grand Master Winslow Lewis rededicated the capsule in 1855, after adding their own items, such as coins, local newspapers, business cards of architects and an impression of the Massachusetts seal.
The items added to the capsule on Wednesday include a 2015 mint set of U.S. coins and a plaque created by silversmith Steve Smithers of Ashfield.
Before the ceremony, roughly 1,250 Masons, clad in suits, ties and aprons, marched up the hill from the Grand Masonic Lodge on Tremont Street and piled into the area near the John F. Kennedy statue.
State House staffers crowded the third floor balcony overlooking the ceremony, causing Baker to quip, "Now I've learned in the governor's office, life is busy, although if you look behind me, it's pretty clear nobody in state government's doing anything today."
Baker added: "But the days fly by filled with meetings, press conferences and events, and sometimes you can forget how lucky we are to have an historic site like the State House right here in our backyard."
The ceremony offers a "unique opportunity here to reflect on civic service, our democracy, our history and the ideas that we debate every day as we try to shape our present and our future, and to think about our own legacy," Baker said.
Secretary of State William Galvin, whose office put together the ceremony, offered a message to Massachusetts residents, particularly the 400 schoolchildren in attendance, many wearing blue t-shirts commemorating the re-dedication of the capsule.
"Don't treat this building as simply a museum, a place to marvel at, a place of beauty," Galvin said. "Treat it as a place to come to, make your voices heard. When there are issues that you feel strongly about throughout the years, come back here, make your voices heard again and again and again. That is the true legacy of Revere and Adams and all of the patriots."
Harvey Waugh, Grand Master of Masons in Massachusetts, also participated in the ceremony.
According to Galvin's office, the sound and video system for the event, placed on State House grounds and on the Freedom Trail area outside the building, cost $47,603, and other agencies may have incurred their own costs.
Sen. Richard Ross, a Wrentham Republican, stood at the top of the State House steps with fellow lawmakers and described the ceremony as a "brush with history."
Ross said he was glad that the artifacts originally placed in the capsule won't remain in a museum. "It's very fitting those things are returned," he said.
The capsule was opened in January at the Museum of Fine Arts and its contents were put on display. Mike Ragosta, a 62-year-old resident of Naples, Fla., stopped to take in the ceremony with his 14-month-old grandson and a few hundred other people.
"You can never have enough extravagance with history," he said a few moments before the cannon fire thundered through Boston Common.
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