Melrose Time Capsule Uncovered, Reveals 'United Community'

MELROSE, MA — Ah, 1949. Presidents were talking Fair Deals, not Great Deals. The Emmys started, and presumably no one was played offstage into a commercial break. Hellen Keller was named a Communist by the FBI. Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel, Ric Flair, Eddie Money, and Bill Buckner were born.

And Melrose was a "a united community" with "no geographical or political divisions and no class dissentions [sic]."

That's according to a letter in a time capsule uncovered Monday by workers renovating at the Horace Mann School. The contents of the metal box, buried nearly 70 years ago, offers a look into the life of - dare we say it? - "Old Melrose." (Subscribe to Melrose Patch for more local news and real-time alerts.)

The letter - signed by Fiftieth Anniversary Committee Chairman Ralph D. Leonard, was one of several items inside.

"The contents of this time capsule provided a fascinating glimpse into life in Melrose almost 70 years ago," said Mayor Rob Dolan. "They were still recovering from World War II, concerned about the potential of the atomic bomb, and at the same time, striving to keep Melrose a good place to live, especially in terms of providing education for the baby boom they knew was coming."

The following were found inside the box:

• A letter from the architect of the school, Sherman H. Jones, who included a set of coins in the envelope;
• A letter from Mayor Thomas L. Thistle, who enclosed some newspaper clippings about Melrose and two copies of his campaign brochure;
• A letter from the Fiftieth Anniversary Committee, signed by chairman Ralph D. Leonard;
• A record of the vote of the Melrose School Committee to name the school after Horace Mann; the committee originally voted to name it for former Mayor Charles Adams, but he declined the honor;
• A letter from Frank E. Keniston, Chairman of the Mayor’s Advisory Building Committee, giving some details of the planning and construction of the school;
• A brochure from the Melrose Savings Bank (whose president was Ralph D. Leonard);
• Copies of remarks made by Superintendent of Schools Harold T. Rand and School Committee Chair Herbert N. Faulkner at the laying of the cornerstone;
• The 1948 Manual of the City of Melrose;
• A booklet titled “Your Schools in 1948,” which was an annual report about the Melrose schools;
• The Manual of the Melrose Public Schools;
• “First Days in School,” a booklet published by the School Department in 1949;
• Copies of the Melrose Free Press;
• The List of Persons in the City of Melrose from 1949
• A copy of the 1948 Melrose annual report;
• Blueprints of the Horace Mann School

The items will temporarily be displayed in the Horace Mann entryway before being moving to the Melrose Public Library.

"The documents in this time capsule were handed down to us by Melrosians who were confident in their identity and desirous to impress their values onto posterity," Historical Commission Chair James Bennett said. "They remind us that Melrose was popularly known at the time as ‘the spotless town.’ Mayor Thistle boasts that his was the only city in the Commonwealth that could claim to be both ‘bone-dry and debt-free.’"

The more things change, the more they stay the same, it would seem.

"Emerging from the wreckage of the Depression and World War II, facing down the threat of nuclear annihilation, these voices from our past nonetheless exude a confidence that this community had the fortitude to weather any future storm," Bennett said.

Dr. Mary Ellen Cobbs, the principal of the Horace Mann, will prepare a new time capsule to be buried Monday, Oct. 2. It will contain letters from Dolan, Cobbs, staff, and students.

"I’m hoping they will find ways to connect their lives in the present with those of future Horace Mann staff and students," Cobbs said.