Fifty years ago, America was celebrating its bicentennial, and Delray Beach took part in the festivities. According to the Boca Raton News in 1976, there was a replica of the Liberty Bell, the Atlantic High School band played music, a barbecue and ski show took place at Lake Ida, and fireworks capped off the evening.
At 2 p.m., bells throughout the city rang and a time capsule was buried.
This Fourth of July, during the 250th anniversary of America’s founding, that time capsule will be unsealed.
On July 4 at 5 p.m. at the corner of Atlantic Avenue and A1A, the city will present the “a unique snapshot of the city’s past,” according to a press release from the city. Items include “memories, messages, and artifacts.” There are plans to display some of the capsule items at the Delray Beach Historical Society.
Kaley Howald, archivist at the Delray Beach Historical Society, said that surprisingly there is not a lot in the record about the time capsule, but a Delray Beach News Journal article noted that items include a set of bicentennial coins, stamps, and items from the era “Allegedly there’s a pet rock in the time capsule,” she laughed.
“It’s exciting to kind of see what people were thinking at the time and what they thought was important,” Howald added.
This is not the only time that Delray Beach has buried a time capsule. In 2011, the city unsealed a time capsule buried in 1986 to mark the city’s 75th anniversary. In 2012, a capsule was buried again to be opened in 2112. According to the Sun Sentinel, “the capsule contains a DVD about the city titled ‘Delray Then and Now,’ a local phone book, an iPod loaded with music and recent editions of local newspapers.”
And in 2010, according to the Palm Beach Post, local congregants of the First Presbyterian Church discovered a copper box hidden in a cornerstone that came loose—it was a time capsule buried in 1928. Inside: newspaper clippings, a church bulletin, and Western Union telegrams.
