City unearths time capsule beneath Vance Monument

City workers Tuesday morning recovered a time capsule from Vance Monument that has been concealed there since 1897 when the monument was constructed and dedicated. It was wedged beneath a Masonic cornerstone block at the base of the obelisk. During the removal, which took more than an hour, bystanders could see a stack of papers and what appeared to be a Bible.

The other contents remain a mystery, but an article in the Asheville Daily Citizen from Dec. 22, 1897, lists the items supposedly inside, including silver coins, an honor roll from local schools, a muster roll from the Confederate company of Gov. Zebulon Vance, to whom the monument is dedicated, Masonic documents, and several newspapers, including what was presumably the African American newspaper of the day, the Colored Enterprise.

Heather South, lead archivist for the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources, said the contents of the time capsule will probably take weeks to explore. She hopes to reveal the details at the rededication of the monument, which is set for May 16 but could be delayed if the repairs take longer.

"My guess is there's going to be a lot of conservation work needed," she said. "It's obviously been subjected to huge fluctuations in climate over the past 100-plus years."

South didn't expect to open the box Tuesday, but because the monument had shifted on its foundation over time, the capsule had to be removed in pieces. Workers pried off the front of the copper box, and South showed the crowd of about two dozen bystanders a leather-bound Bible. Inside the box, a stack of papers about six inches high appeared intact.

The Freemasons curated the contents of the capsule in 1897.

"They were the movers and the shakers of the time," South said, noting they didn't specify a date when the capsule was to be opened. "If it hadn't been reported in the paper, it would have been lost. ... There's nothing saying 'time capsule.'"

The capsule could reveal more information about the Colored Enterprise newspaper, which is largely a mystery. Zoe Rhine, a librarian in the North Carolina Room at Pack Library, says she's seen mention of the African American newspaper online, but she's never actually seen a copy. "It would make me think there probably aren't surviving copies," she says. "But we get things all the time that people have in their closets."

Gus Sims, senior warden of the Mt. Hermon Lodge No. 118, the same Masonic group to which Vance belonged, said the time capsule was probably intended to represent the entire community. "Historically, people have thought of Masons as a white, male organization," he said. "It's true it's a male organization, but the only thing Masons ask of a man is belief in a deity."

Sims observed as the time capsule was removed, along with several other members of Mr. Hermon Lodge, which meets in the nearby Masonic Temple.

South says time capsules are fairly common. She recovered and preserved several in South Carolina, where she worked before she came to Asheville. The Vance Monument capsule is the first one she's worked with locally, she said.

Chris Roberts, part of the 26th North Carolina, a Civil War re-enactment and preservation group that raised $115,000 for the restoration of the monument, watched as city workers chipped away at the stone around the time capsule. "They wanted to give the future a little view of Asheville in 1897," he says. "It was an attempt to give a little snapshot."

The capsule was removed Tuesday so that restoration work to the monument could begin, South said. That process will involve water to clean the mortar around the stones, which would have damaged the contents. The time capsule belongs to North Carolina, but it will remain in Asheville at the NCDCR Western Regional Archive.