Time Capsule 2001


Contents
Donors
Dedication Speech by Tony Irons
Photo Gallery

"Time Capsule" is defined in The Oxford English Dictionary (1989) as "a container used to store for posterity a selection of objects thought to be representative of life at a particular time."

On January 5, 2001, San Francisco"s New Millennium Time Capsule was dedicated and installed at the cornerstone of City Hall. The Mayor, Willie L. Brown Jr., and Tony Irons, the City Architect, spoke at the ceremony. The capsule will be opened at the beginning of the next century.

Former San Francisco Mayor James "Sunny Jim" Rolph Jr., installed a similar box in 1913 at the base of City Hall. That box was accidentally discovered in 1997 during the City Hall renovation and seismic retrofit. It contained old coins, newspapers, and public documents related to the original groundbreaking of City Hall. Some of those contents are displayed in City Hall"s South Light Court.

After the completion of the renovation and seismic retrofit of City Hall, Tony Irons decided to replace the old box with a new time capsule. A committee of historians, archivists, and students was created to funnel through thousands of suggestions of what should go into the new time capsule box.

A fedora worn by Mayor Willie L. Brown Jr. was just one of the items placed and sealed in the time capsule. Here is the complete list of contents.