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Time kind to Alberta legislature, but not to contents of time capsule

EDMONTON — The contents of a time capsule that was opened on the 100th birthday of Alberta’s legislature building do not appear to have survived the century as well as the building itself.

EDMONTON — The contents of a time capsule that was opened on the 100th birthday of Alberta’s legislature building do not appear to have survived the century as well as the building itself.

With Speaker Gene Zwozdesky and Premier Alison Redford standing nearby, children and provincial cabinet ministers reached inside the metal box on Sunday afternoon as a crowd braved wet and windy weather to watch.

Item by item, gloved hands gingerly removed several folded, brittle newspapers that were printed before the capsule was sealed and placed underneath one of the building’s cornerstones in 1909.

There was also a Bible, a scroll, a quarter and a penny from the period, and what appeared to be a photograph of the trowel that was used to dig the cornerstone.

Zwozdesky noted to the crowd that the Bible was likely too brittle to open and that one of the items seemed to be stuck to another underneath it.

The unsealing of the time capsule was part of a day of celebrations marking the anniversary of the legislature, which opened in 1912.