100 year old time capsule opened

ST. ALBANS, W.Va. (WSAZ) - Traveling back in time may not be possible, but Saturday in St. Albans, dozens of people got as close as possible.

The city opened up a 100-year-old time capsule from the former St. Albans Junior School Building but no one knew what was inside until it was opened.

“It was fantastic man, it was like a kid on Christmas morning,” St. Albans Mayor Scott James said. “We didn’t know what was in there. This is just a great piece of history that occurred here in St. Albans.”

From coins dating back to the early 1900s to a copy of The Valley News, James pulled each item out one at a time for everyone to see.

Looking at some of the items pulled out, James said you can see the impact people from that time still have in the city.

“There’s a lot of streets in St. Albans named after those folks like Buyer, " he said. “We got a Buyer Street. Weimer, Jordan C Weimer Elementary.”

Among the dozens of people who came to watch was Weldon Pierson, a former principal at the school.

He said seeing everything that came out reconnected him to the decades he spent working there.

“The thing that fascinated me most was the quality of the paper,” he said. “Not necessarily what was written on it but you know that that paper was 100 years old.”

The 800-pound piece of limestone that held the capsule will now live permanently at the corner of 2nd Street and 6th Avenue in the city.

Mayor James said they’re planning to put everything found in the time capsule on display at city hall.