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Volume 2, Number 47, Thursday, November 21, 2019
Roberto’s Log Cabin
A bicentennial treasure
Time capsule found in Willi CLAIRE GALVIN CHRONICLE STAFF WRITER
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WILLIMANTIC — Willimantic’s Main Street architecture has long since been regarded as historically rich and ever-changing. But, earlier this month, a local construction crew and town officials found out that history extends below the ground, too. After finding a time capsule from 1976 underneath the Main Street sidewalk, town officials restocked it with 2019 artifacts and placed it below the earth again. “It was just so cool to hear about the time capsule,” said Windham Town Council President Thomas DeVivo, who attended the capsule replacement Thursday. The town’s adventure with the time capsule began earlier this week when a construction crew was tearing up the sidewalk near 770 Main St., near Treasure’s Gift Shop, and found the plastic container. Inside were two letters, several coins and a pamphlet about Main Street developments. The letters were written by Donald Miner, then 20 years old, and his mother, Alice Miner. The Miner family owned Hobbyland, a hobby and craft store, in the 1970s where Treasure’s currently exists.
In his letter, Donald Miner wrote he decided to place the container when a construction worker dug up some coins while the town was being redeveloped. “One of the workers found coins in the dirt between the two stores,” Alice Miner wrote. “They were of some value and covered the years of 1898 through 1904. It was rather exciting.” Alice and her son Donald then decided to leave coins from 1976. “I’ve left some coins, two quarters dated of this year,” Donald Miner wrote. “This is a very special quarter because it is a bicentennial year. It’s the United States’ birthday — two hundred years old.” In his letter, Donald Miner asked that whoever found his time capsule find his nearest relatives and pass it along to them. Although it was more than four decades later, that search was not long. Windham Town Engineer Joe Gardner, Willimantic Fire Chief Marc Scrivener and town residents Doug and Claire Lary tried to track the family down. Although the mother had passed on, Donald Miner still lives in Mansfield. “I did remember placing the time capsule,” he said Nov. 8. “I never actually
Windham Town Engineer Joe Gardner stands with some items from a time capsule found underneath the Main Street sidewalk that was buried in 1976. Roxanne Pandolfi | Staff
thought it would be reopened in my lifetime, though.” Town officials reached out to Donald Miner to ask him his thoughts about what to do with the time capsule. “I thought it should either be out on display somewhere, or put back in the ground,” he said. DeVivo said he didn’t know the Miners, but did remember the store. “It was nice that they wanted it reburied and more stuff to be added,” DeVivo said. Donald Miner said he has seen many changes in Windham and Mansfield during his time in this area. “We opened in the ’70s when Willimantic was ‘the place to go,’” Donald Miner
said. “There was nothing else. If you lived out in the country, going into the big city meant going into Willimantic.” Donald Miner said the city experienced a slight slump like many downtown Main Streets in recent decades, but did think it was on the rise again. DeVivo said he spent a lot of time on Main Street in 1976, when he was 15 years old. “My brothers and I had a Chronicle paper route,” DeVivo said. “It was a very busy place. There was a lot of construction and demolition. They cleared up Jillson Square around that time.” Follow Claire Galvin on Twitter - @CGalvinTC.
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