Roundhouse demolition uncovers 1938 time capsule

BY KIRK STARRATT

kstarratt@kentvilleadvertiser.ca

NovaNewsNow.com

It was amazing, or perhaps miraculous, that an excavator operator and his co-workers found the small tin can imbedded in the cement wall.

A 70-year-old time capsule containing a handwritten note was discovered when the former railway roundhouse building in Kentville was demolished last summer.

Doug Croft and Kyle Eye, along with co-worker Colin Delmars, were working on the demolition when Croft, an excavator operator, broke into a section of the cement wall and found the tin can embedded within. Eye opened the can and discovered a handwritten note that was saturated with an oily substance.

The note was dated May 10, 1938 and was signed by John DeWolfe, George Gillis, Harry Lynch, Harvey McLeod and Albert Roberts. They state on the note they were the builders of the cement foundation. The note asks the finders to please return the note to one of the men who placed it. There was a reward of $1 offered.

Eye said he couldn’t believe how well preserved the can was. He said a lot of people would probably have taken the item home, but no one would have gotten to share the history involved.

“It’s something we’ll remember for the rest of our lives,” Eye said about the discovery. He recalls that when they found the can, fellow workers gathered around. They were digging at the can, which was imbedded in the wall, with a piece of rebar, trying to get it free. Eye recalls thinking, “Holy cow, this is something substantial.”

Experience was quite surreal

He couldn’t believe there was a $1 reward offered and the experience was quite surreal. Eye said every day was a new experience while they were demolishing the roundhouse. They found a cigarette package from 1938 as well, but Eye said that wasn’t as exciting as the note.

Croft said they dug up a lot of old bottles as well during the demolition, but he didn’t know what to make of the tin can.

“I didn’t know what to think at first,” he said. “We were quite excited when we found it.”

The workers wrote their own note on a similar piece of paper to keep with the original at the Kings County Museum in Kentville. Curator Bria Stokesbury said they’re keeping the original note as stable as they can in an acid-free envelope out of the light so hopefully it will be preserved.

Tom Windeyer, senior environmental scientist, Stantec Consulting, who worked with the Town of Kentville on the demolition project, said the original note indicated the finders were entitled to a reward of $1. It is believed that all of the workers who placed the time capsule 70 years ago have passed on, so Windeyer presented Croft and Eye with dollar bills that would have been in circulation in 1938.

“I thought it would be fair to give them one dollar in the currency of the day,” he said. “I thought, ‘what a rare thing to come across.’”

He said the people who built the foundation knew it would be coming down one day and they obviously wanted to keep their names associated with the building.

Never experienced a discovery like this

Retired Town of Kentville Engineering and Public Works director Hal Henderson, who oversaw the demolition project, said it’s nice the contractor took the time to stop and rescue the can.

Henderson said he hoped there would be some finds in the building, but he never experienced a discovery as amazing as the time capsule at any point in his career with the town. They uncovered other artifacts during other projects, like old bottles when replacing laterals, but nothing like this.

Retired Kentville Chief Administrative Officer Bill Boyd, who served as CAO when the discovery was made, said it’s great that artifacts such as the time capsule and note can be preserved because they help illustrate the town’s railway heritage. He said people find time capsules interesting and the town itself placed one in 1987.

“I even know a couple chaps from the note,” Boyd said. “John DeWolfe was my neighbour for 10 years in town. To see his name pop up in this time capsule is very exciting.”

A number of artifacts uncovered during the roundhouse demolition and environmental remediation of the former CP Rail land have been donated to the Kings County Museum.