1910 time capsule opened at Cleveland Elementary S.F. EDUCATION 1910 time capsule gets opened at Cleveland Elementary School

John Weidinger, the person who discovered the location of the 100-year-old time capsule, displays the contents found inside during a ceremony at Cleveland Elementary School on Wednesday Jan, 25, 2011, in San Francisco, Ca. less John Weidinger, the person who discovered the location of the 100-year-old time capsule, displays the contents found inside during a ceremony at Cleveland Elementary School on Wednesday Jan, 25, 2011, in San ... more Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 9 Caption Close 1910 time capsule opened at Cleveland Elementary 1 / 9 Back to Gallery

A copper box buried for a century behind the Cleveland Elementary School cornerstone didn't hold a singing frog in a top hat or a stash of gold coins.

But the 1910 time capsule, opened Wednesday in front of San Francisco schoolchildren, teachers and city officials, was full of treasure nonetheless.

The beat-up box encased in concrete held preserved pieces of the past, untouched and forgotten inside a school wall as, just a few feet away, generations of children learned and played.

A letter, official city and trade union documents and pictures filled the 100-year-old capsule, offering a glimpse of San Francisco four years after the 1906 earthquake and fire that destroyed much of the city.

"To the Honorable Mayor of San Francisco. Whoever he May be. During the period in which this box may be opened," read the letter's envelope, the words carefully typed and underlined in blue ink.

The letter's authors were members of the Excelsior Homestead Progressive Association, "an improvement club," and it suggests they had little hope their words would ever be discovered or be legible if they were.

"...In the event that these lines are ever brought to light again it may be interesting to the readers to know something of the conditions prevailing at the time of the laying of the cornerstone," the Sept. 18, 1910, letter said. "The city of San Francisco has just about recovered from the effects of the great earthquake and fire of 1906 and is now on a fair way to gretaer prosperity than ever."

It would be several generations before the city would see the women's movement or spell check.

Long forgotten

In the intervening years, the copper box was forgotten.

Former Cleveland student and now school volunteer John Weidinger discovered the time capsule's existence while researching the history of the 100-year-old school.

The capsule was mentioned briefly in a San Francisco Call newspaper story at the time, saying then-Mayor P.J. "Pinhead" McCarthy placed the box behind the cornerstone after the children sang "The Star-Spangled Banner." It didn't say what was inside.

"Had I not found that one sentence, maybe we might have lost that part of San Francisco history," Weidinger said Wednesday moments before he pulled the contents out of the box in front of the students.

During the school's winter break, district carpenters cut around the cornerstone and confirmed the box existed. It took two more days to drill the box out of concrete while protecting the cornerstone.

Anxious students eagerly guessed.

Third-grader Andy Lopez had given it some thought.

"A book," the 8-year-old said Wednesday before the box was opened. "And a letter inside the book, and the mayor could have written the letter, and it might say, 'Cleveland is the No. 1, best school ever.' "

He was close.

Rules and letters

The contents ranged from the mundane, including a pamphlet of the trade rules for the cement workers union, to the sentimental letter addressed to a presumably male mayor who hadn't been born yet.

There were class pictures of children in uniforms on the back of postcards; an invitation to the laying of the cornerstone; a book titled "Courses of Study - Evening Elementary School"; school district fiscal documents; and a 1909 "School Law of California" book.

There was also a 1911 Board of Education salary schedule indicating a grammar school teacher would earn $2,460 for the year.

Cleveland Principal Kristin Tavernetti said she plans to permanently display the box and its contents in a case at the school and then put another time capsule back in the hole behind the cornerstone for Cleveland kids of the future.

In the meantime, she urged Cleveland students in 2011 to savor the present.

"I want to let you know this is such a special occasion in your life," she said. "It's probably one you'll never forget."