Hale Memorial Church time capsule is opened, but the contents are still a mystery
PEORIA – Anyone sitting at the edge of their seat anxious to find out what’s in the Hale Memorial Church time capsule should go ahead and get comfortable.
It will be a while before the contents of the 10-inch by 10-inch copper box are unpacked. Paper conservator Ana Lyra is calling the shots, and she put the brakes on the ceremonial unveiling at the Scottish Rite Theatre Tuesday afternoon after the severed lid was carefully removed.
“I’m not going to do it now. I have to do it in a very careful manner,” she told the audience of about 70.
The good news is that it appears the contents of the box are in very good condition. There was concern things might be moldy, since the church was badly deteriorated and had been through two fires. But the box, which was still tightly sealed, had evidently been well protected in the carved cornerstone where it sat for 122 years. The newspaper on top, which was wrapped around the other contents of the box, was hardly even stained. It bore the headline “The Flying Roll” and was dated October 1900.
Lyra, who worked for many years as a paper conservator for Bradley University, said she will slowly unpack the box in a laboratory-like setting in the near future. Great care is necessary to keep from damaging the artifacts, she said.
“I took an oath as a conservator to do no harm,” Lyra said as people filed past the opened time capsule to get a glimpse of the newspaper on top.
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Contents of the box will be revealed on the Scottish Rite Theatre’s website as the box gets unpacked.
Though the historic Hale Memorial Church is no more, the KDB Group is working to preserve whatever they can from the historic building they were forced to tear down.
Two giant steel-covered finials and the 400-pound cornerstone, marked with the dates 1868, for the congregation’s first church, and 1900, for the most recent building, were on the stage alongside the time capsule. KDB Group has also preserved the church’s large stained-glass windows, which are currently being restored.
Built in 1900, the church sat on the corner of High and Main streets. It was named in honor of early community leader Asahel Hale, and over the years was home to a number of congregations until a fire in 1999 caused $100,000 in damage.
The abandoned structure captured the imagination of three different couples who hatched plans to repurpose it. The final couple, Utah residents who bought the church sight-unseen online in 2021, sold it to the KDB Group after flying to Peoria and seeing the scope of the renovation.
Owned by medtech entrepreneur and community philanthropist Kim Blickenstaff, KDB Group purchased the building with the intention of restoring it. It became clear that the church was too far gone when workers refused to climb on the roof to repair it. Demolition of the church was approved by the Peoria Historic Preservation Commission in June, and the church was gone by the end of August.
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KDB Group still owns the small lot on which the church stood, and plans to turn it into green space with some kind of memorial to the church. Details of the plan have not yet been released.
Leslie Renken can be reached at (309) 370-5087 or lrenken@pjstar.com. Follow her on Facebook.com/leslie.renken.
This article originally appeared on Journal Star: Peoria time capsule remains a mystery
