City Leaders Open Time Capsule Buried Outside of Pershing Center Since 1959

The concrete plaque commemorating the time capsule city leaders buried in 1959 for Lincoln’s Centennial celebration that year. (Jeff Motz/KFOR News)

Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird hold a couple of reel-to-reel audio tapes that were stored in a time capsule buried outside Pershing Center in 1959. The capsule was opened Tuesday afternoon before plans move forward with redevelopment of the Pershing block. (Jeff Motz/KFOR News)

LINCOLN–(KFOR Apr. 18)–You probably didn’t notice all those years of attending shows, sporting events and expos at Pershing Center (formerly Pershing Auditorium) that there was a time capsule buried outside of the main entrance.

The capsule was opened on Tuesday afternoon and inside it were items such as old newspapers, film, reel-to-reel tape, other brochures from Lincoln businesses. even old packages of spaghetti and a calendar from the old Gooch’s Mill from Lincoln’s Centennial year in 1959. So why opening the time capsule 64 years later, instead of waiting until 2059?

“We have gone out for a bid to demo this building (Pershing),” Urban Development Director Dan Marvin said. He further explained what the plans are for the lot bounded by Centennial Mall and 16th Street, “M” to “N” Streets.

History Nebraska archivist Anna Holley (left) and Lincoln’s Urban Development Director Dan Marvin examine reel-to-reel audio tapes found inside a time capsule from 1959 that was opened Tuesday afternoon at Pershing Center. (Jeff Motz/KFOR News)

“We have a project that is gonna go along 16th Street, so the timing of removing things out of the time capsule is really driven by the need to repurpose this site,” Marvin told reporters. Opening bids for the site should take place by the end of April.

The items found in a time capsule unsealed from outside Pershing Center on Tuesday afternoon sit on a table. That includes a Gooch’s Mill calendar and numerous brochures and information on Lincoln businesses from 1959. (Jeff Motz/KFOR News)

Also in the time capsule was a letter from Mayor Bennett Martin for the future mayor in 2059, talking about the technology Lincolnites were enjoying in 1959.

“We have recently accepted television as a popular medium of entertainment and a few homes are equipped with these instruments which actually project the picture in color,” Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird read in quoting Martin’s letter.

The items found in the time capsule will now go over to History Nebraska for inventory.