The Derby Elks opened a 100-year-old time capsule Friday, uncovering a trove of well-preserved community artifacts.
The items — photographs, documents from the Elks Lodge, a U.S. flag, coins, an Evening Sentinel newspaper — were sealed in a copper box and placed into the corner of the Elks Lodge’s exterior wall at 73 Elizabeth St. on Dec. 8, 1915.
They were opened Friday during a festive gathering of Elks Lodge members and the public.
“I can’t wait to digitize (the photos found inside),” said Derby history buff Randy Ritter. “That’s what history is all about, preserving it and sharing it.”
Ritter will talk about the time capsule Monday, Nov. 30 on “Valley Navel Gazing,” the Valley Indy’s weekly talk show. Click here Monday morning to listen.
First masons carved into the concrete wall on Elizabeth Street to access the box, which was tucked behind the cornerstone marked “1915,” the year the building was constructed.
Derby’s Jack Walsh streamed the opening live on the Internet. A video is embedded below:
Retired Derby Police Det. George Kurtyka, a 25-year member of the Elks Lodge, was one of five men who removed the sealed box from the cornerstone.
He held it up in the air for all to see as the crowd cheered.
“It was really an honor to remove the time capsule,” he said. “This is awesome.”
The group went inside the Lodge to watch Ritter and Derby Historical Society Deputy Director Paula Norton painstakingly go through the items in the box — after the workmen carved the top off the heavy-duty tomb.
The video below shows the contents being revealed.
The box held the story of the first 15 years of the Lodge, which was founded in Derby in February 1900.
Norton was surprise at how many items were tucked into the box. She wore latex gloves to protect the historical items.
The 1915 Elks were an efficient bunch. The time capsule included a list of everything inside.
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Mayor Anita Dugatto, an Elks Lodge member, was happy to be a part of Derby history Friday.
“These are missing pieces of Derby,” she said.
The Derby Elks’ origin dates back to February 1900, when “a number of fellows who were in the habit of meeting quite frequently” talked about forming a social club of some kind.
A postcard was sent out “to several local gentlemen,” according to a write-up on the lodge’s origins.
The boys got together at Dr. L.T. LaBonte’s office at 4 p.m. Feb. 25, 1900.
Someone suggested forming an Elks chapter.
The doc was impressed.
“That’s the stuff! That’s the stuff!” he reportedly exclaimed.
Members in the early days — many were doctors and lawyers, according to Past Exhalted Ruler Tony Gorlewski — used various Derby taverns to hold meetings. It took 15 years to raise the money and break ground on the four-story structure on Elizabeth Street.
It took 15 years to raise money to build the building.
The lodge is forever indebted to Friend A. Russ, a Valley industrialist who gave the Elks a check for $20,000 in 1917 to pay off their mortgage.
He wasn’t a member, though his photo hangs in the lodge to this day as thanks.
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