Repair people discover 100-year-old time capsule in Michigan home

A repair project in the house of Michigan resident, Jesse Leitch, led to the discovery of a time capsule dating back to 1915.

When a boil water advisory in Grand Rapids caused a Leitch’s heater to fail a few weeks ago, the homeowner was forced to hire some repair people to fix the problem. However, as the repair people began to work on his pipes and heater, they started to cut through the bathroom ceiling only to discover a hidden 100-year-old time capsule.

“Just basically as they were cutting into the ceiling above the bathroom – it wasn’t in a box, it was just all this stuff kind of set in a pile basically,” Leitch explained to ABC News. “I just thought it was really cool. Because, you know, I’ve always kind of thought about doing stuff like that, you know, if we renovate the place, leave something on the wall for the next guy. And so I just thought it was extremely cool.”

Leitch marvelled at the discovery, saying: “I knew this place was built in 1910. And so it’s just a really old building and made me think about, you know, obviously, some kid living here thought this stuff was important to stick around for some for the next guy.”

According to the homeowner, 12 items were found within the time capsule, including a handwritten note with a drawing, a tiny cast iron pan, a small percussion instrument, a marble, a couple of dominoes, a picture of Jesus as well as newspaper clippings from 1915.

One of his daughters marvelled at the fact that these artifacts had withstood the test of time. She said, “I think it’s really cool that all of this stuff just survived through the workers, and we had a bunch of mice who would want to get to all this paper most definitely.”

Leitch said that he planned on keeping and using the artifacts that were found.

“With a cast iron pan, I think we want to clean the rust out of it and try like cooking some tiny, tiny food with it and see how that works. Cook over a tea light,” he said. “I make music, kind of by myself mostly, but I kind of want to record these and see if I can make something interesting out of them.”

He noted that this wasn’t the first time he’d stumbled on some hidden treasures in the bathroom, saying that it wasn’t uncommon for Grand Rapids residents to find old artifacts in their homes. Not only that, but the city is also home to the Apollo Command Module, which acts as a giant time capsule for the city.

The memorabilia includes reportedly newspapers, photos, letters, a pacemaker, a skateboard, and Grand Rapids-made furniture. The items were collected by local high school students at the time of the city’s sesquicentennial and the nation’s bicentennial to capture what life was like at the time. The giant time capsule will be opened in the year 2076.