Unsealing Salem's Past: St. Joseph Church Time Capsule Cracked

For more than 60 years, an air-tight copper container roughly the size of a shoebox sat undisturbed in the cornerstone of Salem's St. Joseph Church.

On Sunday, the time capsule was pried opened during a packed church service at St. James Parish.

Inside the capsule were assorted church documents, a hand-written registry of the church officials who planned the time capsule and a list containing the names of the workers who built the church.

There were also news clippings from 1949, a document honoring the local soldiers who fought for their country during World War II and pins representing a variety of city organizations.

All of the items collected from the capsule will be scanned and posted to the church's website, the Rev. John Sheridan said.

The church service reflected on the history of the former Lafayette Street church, which was recently torn down to make way for a new mixed-use development.