SALISBURY, MD - The Salisbury Area Chamber of Commerce hoped to take a trip down memory lane this morning by unearthing a time capsule from the downtown post office.
According to a 1920s local newspaper article, the Salisbury Area Chamber of Commerce founders placed the time capsule behind the plate of the building's original cornerstone.
After nearly two hours of chipping away at the brick and mortar surrounding the plate, there were bricks and an empty cavity where the time capsule should have been.
Project Manager John Allen said his team has never worked on a job quite like this one.
"We kind of brought any tool we possibly could have thought of to need today, just with the anticipation of any unknown coming up," Allen said.
Salisbury Area Chamber of Commerce President Bill Chambers said the Chamber planned to open the time capsule to mark the 100-year anniversary.
The COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 delayed the project.
"I'm in disbelief," Chambers said. "All the information we had from the historians here in Wicomico County and in Salisbury said that the box was behind the plate in the building."
There might be a clue to the time capsule's location in another local newspaper article from 1936.
The article states that the Maryland chapter of the Masons laid their own time capsule in the new cornerstone of the post office after an expansion.
Chambers said the Salisbury Area Chamber of Commerce will contact the Masons to investigate the possibility that their time capsule was relocated at this time.
