Long Beach To Open 50-Year-Old Time Capsule

LONG BEACH, CA. — For 50 years, a collection of handwritten letters, high school yearbooks, newspapers and other everyday objects from the Bicentennial era has remained sealed, buried beneath Long Beach. On Wednesday, city officials will finally open the time capsule, offering residents a glimpse of how the city saw itself during America's 200th birthday.

The capsule, buried outside the former Long Beach City Hall on July 4, 1976, will be opened at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday during a ceremony inside the City Council Chambers at the current City Hall.

Created as part of the dedication of the former City Hall and Long Beach Public Library, the capsule contains more than 84 items intended to preserve a snapshot of life in Long Beach during the nation's Bicentennial celebration.

Among the items are Bicentennial flags, newspapers and publications from 1976, handwritten letters from local elementary school students and yearbooks from Lakewood, Millikan, Poly and Wilson high schools. The collection also includes several surprise gifts addressed to the city's mayor and the mayor's wife.

Several of the former students who wrote letters as fifth and sixth graders in 1976 are expected to attend the ceremony and read their messages aloud, offering a rare opportunity to hear the hopes and perspectives of Long Beach children from half a century ago.

"A time capsule is more than a collection of artifacts, it's a promise between generations," Mayor Rex Richardson said in a statement. "Fifty years ago, Long Beach residents captured their hopes for the future. Today we're honored to open that window into our past as we celebrate how far our city has come and recommit ourselves to building an even brighter future for the generations who follow."

The capsule also contains photographs from Long Beach's July 4, 1976 celebration, which coincided with the dedication of the city's then-new civic center. Other items that once would have seemed unremarkable, including city-branded matchbooks, ashtrays and a telephone directory, now serve as reminders of how daily life has changed over the past five decades.

"The 1976 bicentennial time capsule offers a window into Long Beach's past," said Julie Bartolotto, executive director of the Historical Society of Long Beach. "Its most striking contents may be the once ordinary matchbooks and ashtrays branded for the City of Long Beach and a telephone directory that now read as artifacts of a very different time."

The event is part of Long Beach's Seeds of Resilience initiative, which encourages residents to explore the history that has shaped the city as the nation marks the 250th anniversary of its founding. The initiative will culminate Sept. 22 with "Seeds of Resilience: The Story of Long Beach," a community event featuring art, performances and storytelling.

Wednesday's ceremony is being hosted by the Office of Mayor Rex Richardson, the City Manager's Office, the Long Beach Public Library and the Department of Technology and Innovation with support from the Historical Society of Long Beach, Rancho Los Cerritos, the Arts Council for Long Beach and other community organizations.