Cornerstone cracked into
By PATRICIA GRAHAM, T-L Lifestyles EditorArticle Photos
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MARTINS FERRY - While students in the Martins Ferry City School District look to future in their newly opened school complex, it was the past that took center stage Saturday.
Members of the Ohio City Lodge No. 486 Free and Accepted Masons along with members of the school board, administration and alumni association as well as the public were on hand as the cornerstone originally laid in 1952 for an addition at the former high school was opened and its contents revealed at a ceremony held at the Helen M. Dunbar Library at the school complex. Three members of the Martins Ferry High School Class of 1952 - Dorothy Powell, John Bisbocci and William McCrea - were on hand to open the box and announce its contents.
Worshipful Master Thomas Absalom stated the cornerstone was laid at the former high school on May 31, 1952 as members of their lodge marched from lodge to the site.
"At this time Harry S. Truman was president and the Korean War was the news of the day,"said Absalom.
Superintendent Nick Stankovich said it is his intention to have the contents of the cornerstone put on display for all to see.
"Seventeen months ago, we laid a cornerstone for this new complex and in it we put items which reflect our times. It is my hope these items (from the 1952 cornerstone) will be on display until such time as these new buildings come down and the contents of that cornerstone (the 2007 cornerstone) are revealed to a new generation," said Stankovich.
Stankovich said the contents in the 1952 cornerstone were soldered shut in a small metal box and tightly packed inside. While the crowd was expecting only items from that year, they were in for a surprise as the box actually revealed items from a 1903 time capsule.
Some of the items inside were an announcement of the 50th anniversary of Citizen's Bank; a list on contractors who had worked on the Charles. R. Shreve High School; a program of the laying of the cornerstone in 1895 for the original building; Royal Masons jewels and badges; coins dating back to 1899; a history of the Martins Ferry school buildings; a 2-cent piece from the 1800s, business cards from various businesses and a black and white photo of Charles R. Shreve. The cache of dozens of items also include newspapers, advertisements and programs from various ceremonies surrounding the construction of the district's schools.
While there was some confusion as to why some of the items were clearly from the 1950s and others were from a much earlier time, Rev. Thomas N. Thomas, local historian, explained that the mingling of items may be tied to the history of the school buildings.
As Thomas explained, there was a building known as the Betty Zane High School in 1903 and was located on the site where the former vocational building had been. Then in 1923 Charles R. Shreve High School was built and there was no cornerstone laid for that building. In that same year, Betty Zane became a junior high and then was torn down so the addition to Charles R. Shreve could be made in 1952 - which included the boys' gymnasium and auditorium that many graduates knew.
Apparently, the items from the cornerstone at one of the earlier buildings was broken and then its items were included in the 1952 time capsule.
While the items in the cornerstone while require further study to put them in their proper historic light, there were some times during the ceremony which provided insight into the times from which they came.
Powell struggled to get one package open which contained a piece of conduit and inside it held a statement from Evan Reese of Davison Electric which had done the work on the "new" addition to the high school in the 1950s along with a photo of the business. There was also a handwritten document wrapped in tin - not aluminum - foil which gave the history of the the Order of the Eastern Star 456 which was celebrating its 30th anniversary at the time. This particular scroll was also wrapped at each end with a rubber band - both of which came off intact.
Some of the items were rolled and tied with strips of paper while some business cards were simply laid inside or placed in envelopes - all yellowed with age but basically intact as were newspapers of the day.
One surprise was a family record of the Robert G. Heslop family compiled by Robert G. Heslop and opened by his great-grandson Greg Heslop, who still runs the family business.
Following the ceremony, Powell commented on how the event brought back memories of her days in high school.
"I am so very proud to be able to be here to open the cornerstone and to be able to look back at the historical record it has provided," she said, noting while in high school only the Charles R. Shreve portion of the building existed and there was an empty lot on the portion that eventually became the auditorium and gymnasium. "I just kept remembering having Home Economics on the third floor with Miss Blackford and always making a white sauce. It was standard practice back then for us to simply dump what we didn't like right out the window into the brick filled yard below."
Powell also noted the items in the cornerstone reflect how times have changed since 1952.
"One of the items inside was a copy of the program from the baccalaureate ceremony for the class," she said. "Now, we don't even have that ceremony anymore."
Graham can be reached at tgraham@timesleaderonline.com
