Glendale staff unearth 1985 time capsule; council backs opening, limited public display and resealing
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Summary
Deputy City Manager Thomas Adkins told the council a 1985 City Hall time capsule was recovered during the downtown campus revitalization. Staff recommended opening the capsule so contents and condition can be documented; council members favored temporarily displaying items and then resealing the capsule alongside a new one.
Deputy City Manager Thomas Adkins told the Glendale City Council at a Jan. 13 workshop that crews recently unearthed a time capsule placed during the 1985 City Hall groundbreaking and that it is now secured in a city facility. Staff’s research suggests the capsule was installed on the city’s 70th anniversary on June 18, 1985, and contained items such as a letter from then‑mayor George Renner, a photographic journal about singer Marty Robbins and a book written by Bicentennial Elementary first graders.
Adkins said staff found contemporaneous reports showing differing planned reopen dates (2010 in some sources, 2060 in another) and recommended council “open the time capsule and display its contents at our new city hall” or select a combined approach of opening and then resealing next to a new capsule. “This will allow council and staff to provide a full accounting for what’s currently in the time capsule and their condition,” Adkins said during the presentation.
Council members responded positively to the option of a temporary exhibit. One council member said they were “leaning much more to item number 3” — opening the capsule, displaying items for a limited time, and then reinstalling the original next to the new capsule — and several others suggested making the opening a community event and trying to locate original participants, including the first‑grade authors and any council members from that era. Council Member Baldenecker asked staff to allow adequate time for outreach so former students and dignitaries could attend; staff estimated planning would take roughly a year.
Staff confirmed a new time capsule has already been procured and said they will return to council with a detailed plan for the opening, preservation assessment and proposed placement with the new capsule. There was no formal vote; staff sought and the council provided a consensus direction to proceed with option 3 (open, display temporarily, then reseal adjacent to the new time capsule).
Next steps: staff will inventory and assess the contents, plan a public‑facing event and return to council with a schedule and preservation recommendations.
