Mysterious 100-year-old time capsule is discovered and reopened at Midwest masonic temple… and its fascinating contents are immaculate
A century-old time capsule was discovered and opened in Aurora, Illinois, after being hidden inside the historic Lincoln Masonic Temple, which was demolished in 2019 following a fire. Locals gathered on Saturday to watch officials unveil its contents, which had survived fire, demolition and the passage of time largely intact, offering a rare glimpse into the city's Masonic history.
The capsule contained a tube of blueprints along with Masonic bylaws, an 1884 temple manual, lodge bylaws, manuals from 1897 and 1922, a Mason's apron and a stone from King Solomon's quarry, plus a preserved 1922 newspaper. The temple, built between 1921 and 1924 and later listed on the National Register of Historic Places, was destroyed by a three-alarm fire before demolition, but the capsule was found beforehand and kept safe by Mayor John Laesch. Historical Society director John Jaros said such finds are extremely rare, having witnessed only two similar openings in over 40 years, while other officials described the discovery as a remarkable stroke of fortune.
- Century-old Masonic time capsule opened in Aurora, Illinois
- Contents included blueprints, manuals, an apron and old newspaper
- Capsule survived a fire and the temple's 2019 demolition
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Aurora, Illinois once had the Lincoln Masonic Temple, a building put up in the early 1920s that later earned a place on the National Register of Historic Places. In 2019 the building was badly damaged by a large fire and was subsequently demolished, but before it came down, workers found a time capsule hidden inside that had been sealed roughly a century earlier by the local Masonic lodge.
The Freemasons are a centuries-old fraternal organisation with local chapters, or lodges, that often marked significant building projects with ceremonies and buried keepsakes. The capsule from the Lincoln Temple was kept safe by Aurora's mayor, John Laesch, until it could be properly opened, and its contents were revealed to residents at a public event.
This matters because such time capsules rarely survive fires, demolition and decades of weather intact, so historians see the find as an unusually well-preserved window into the city's past and its Masonic community, offering documents and objects that shed light on how the lodge operated a hundred years ago.