Crews Unearth 85-Year-Old Time Capsule While Demolishing R.I. Baseball Stadium
Crews demolishing a former minor league baseball stadium in Rhode Island on May 12 unearthed an 85-year-old time capsule.
Enclosed in the original cornerstone of the former McCoy Stadium in Pawtucket, R.I., the time capsule was discovered during demolition work to prepare the site for a $326-million Pawtucket High School project.
The unearthed capsule will be opened at a June 23 ceremony commemorating the 44th anniversary of the longest-ever professional baseball game. The 33-inning, eight hour and 25-minute game was played at McCoy Stadium in 1981. It’s believed a second capsule with items commemorating the longest game may be buried somewhere between home plate and pitcher’s mound.
McCoy Stadium, which is being torn down to make way for a new high school, was home to the Pawtucket Red Sox. Photo courtesy Shawmut Design and Construction
Chris Maury, head of preconstruction, New England region / head of Rhode Island for Shawmut, said in a statement that the project team is approaching the demolition with the “utmost safety and precision, balancing progress with a deep respect for the site’s historic significance and the potential to uncover meaningful artifacts.”
He said it was “an exciting moment for our team to discover, identify and carefully preserve the capsule found in the stadium’s original cornerstone. We’re continuing to search for the second rumored time capsule and have deployed ground-penetrating radar technology to support this effort. We remain committed to a safe, respectful process every step of the way.”
The capsule was placed into the stadium’s cornerstone on Nov. 3, 1940 by Pawtucket Mayor Thomas McCoy as part of a cornerstone-laying ceremony for the project, according to the Pawtucket Times.
The 375,000 sq-ft high school project, expected to be complete in December 2028, will be the single-largest school project in Rhode Island’s history. The new campus will serve approximately 2,100 high school students.
The new Pawtucket High School is expected to open in December 2028. Rendering courtesy Shawmut Design and Construction
And while the city sorely misses its former baseball team, Pawtucket opened a $132-million minor league soccer stadium on May 3. Built on a brownfield site, the stadium—part of the larger $344-million Tidewater Landing mixed-use complex—is the first 100% electric soccer-specific stadium in the U.S.
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