{"id":5886,"date":"2026-06-29T20:06:42","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T20:06:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/orlandorelocationreport.com\/?p=5886"},"modified":"2026-06-29T20:06:42","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T20:06:42","slug":"orlando-cracks-open-five-decade-old-time-capsule-for-americas-250th","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orlandorelocationreport.com\/?p=5886","title":{"rendered":"Orlando cracks open five-decade-old time capsule for America\u2019s 250th"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Orlando city officials revealed the contents of a five-decade-old time capsule Monday, unearthing magazines, maps, cassette tapes and other memorabilia from when Gerald Ford was president of the United States and \u201cRocky\u201d was the highest grossing movie in the country.<\/p>\n

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That time capsule was buried to celebrate America\u2019s 200th anniversary. Less than a week from the nation\u2019s 250th birthday, more than 40 people gathered in the Orlando City Hall rotunda to get a look at the snapshot of city life from 1976.<\/p>\n

Originally buried at Lake Eola Park near the Kiwanis Club of Orlando, it was relocated during park construction more than a decade ago and then kept in a climate-controlled warehouse. It remained shut until Monday, as it was marked to be opened this June, according to city officials.<\/p>\n

\u201cA time capsule is a bridge to what our city was like 50 years ago,\u201d said Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer during the event, \u201cwhich is hopefully going to show us what was important to residents, what everyday life was like.\u201d<\/p>\n

The capsule, a rectangular vault made of a terracotta-like material, was covered in white swirled designs and the remnants of what once may have been blue and red paint. It was buried when Carl Langford was mayor of Orlando, and the city\u2019s population was about 116,000 residents. Orlando now has about 340,000 who call it home.<\/p>\n

Two people lifted the box\u2019s lid, revealing a pile of dusty items. Dyer and other city officials pulled on rubber gloves and retrieved them, cutting open packages bound in plastic wrap and ribbons patterned like the American flag.<\/p>\n

A circular plastic plaque read \u201cAmerican Revolution Bicentennial.\u201d There was a phone book, camera film canisters, metal pins, the tattered remains of a baseball cap and an orange t-shirt with the outline of a giant thumbs up.<\/p>\n

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It also contained flyers for Florida Technological University \u2014 now the University of Central Florida \u2014 along with a magazine on Walt Disney World\u2019s opening and a copy of the Sentinel Star \u2014now the Orlando Sentinel \u2014 headlined with \u201cSyrians Shatter Peace in Lebanon.\u201d Some type-written documents appeared almost new, while others were yellowed and flaking.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The Kiwanis Club, a service group that helps Central Florida children, planted the capsule in 1976 at the base of a 60-foot flag pole installed that year in Lake Eola Park, said Matt Kelly, the group\u2019s president.<\/p>\n

When the capsule was prematurely dug up during construction, the group didn\u2019t know what it was. \u201cThrough some good Google searches and whatnot, figured out, \u2018Oh my gosh, this is a time capsule\u2019,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Monday, Kelly read aloud a letter written by a former club president, which was also stored in the capsule. The collection of 50-year-old memorabilia was meant to add a \u201chistoric dimension\u201d to patriotic festivities at the time, according to the letter.<\/p>\n

Now that the nation\u2019s semiquincentennial celebration is underway, Kelly proposed a new plan.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cKeeping with tradition, I think it\u2019s wise for our club now to get our act together and get some other items to put into a time capsule so that we can open this in the 300th anniversary of the country,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Read more Supreme Court rules states can count late-arriving mailed ballots, rejecting Trump-led challenge<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Orlando city officials revealed the contents of a five-decade-old time capsule Monday, unearthing magazines, maps, cassette tapes and other memorabilia from 1976.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5885,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5886","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news"],"yoast_head":"\nOrlando cracks open five-decade-old time capsule for America\u2019s 250th - Orlando Relocation Report<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/orlandorelocationreport.com\/?p=5886\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Orlando cracks open five-decade-old time capsule for America\u2019s 250th - 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