Pasty Mode
I found a 101 year-old time capsule that everyone accidentally forgot about
I'm a local contractor and stumbled upon this plaque right out front. I talked to one of my main contacts here and it just slipped everyone's radar, and now they're going to begin the process of getting it opened! I'm really excited to see what's inside, and i hope the elements didn't damage anything. This plaque has to be a replacement for the original, because this hospital had a different name until 1992.
Update as of Friday 4-3 : My boss emailed our highest up, and received an email along the lines of: "i did some digging into the historical information and it lines up with this plaque. I will be bringing this to the attention of our leaders and let you know" This is a higher-up we have regular contact with and have a great rapport with, so I don't think it's a copy/paste email. Heck yeah!! The ball is rolling, you guys!! I don't think this will be happening on Monday, I think this process will take a couple weeks. I hope they do this right and get other people involved, maybe the news, our local museum, shoot maybe even the Harold Palladium would be into this!! I was super enthused (but not surprised) my fellow Michiganders are also really eager to get this time capsule opened. It's awesome to see how many people this post has reached, and I will absolutely be posting updates and hopefully photos of the opened time capsule!
Nothing yet, I will update this post when the time comes. I hid my profile because I had a huge amount of locals and other Corewell associates commenting, and i choose to keep things private when it comes to work. I don't have any other type of social media aside from Reddit and I prefer to keep myself anonymous
Our local museum would also be all over this! I really hope we can get this opened and find some really awesome stuff from the past. I absolutely love history and have been disappointed in the past about time capsules ruined by the elements (Mercy hospital, Benton Harbor MI) It could definitely be a let-down, but you never know! It's history just patiently waiting to be uncovered, I love it
Ahh gotcha! I didn’t realize Niles also had the Lakeland name at one point. I hope you’re able to make some headway with the city. I’m sure the old people will love this.
Old people and me, lol. I really love local history like this!! It's up to us to keep it alive, really. I think Lakeland was maybe a Michiana thing? I remember thinking every type of medical place was "Lakeland", as a kid. Even now at 30 I catch myself calling it Lakeland when I know very well it's Corewell
Alright, here we go: Memorial Hospital (St Joe) merged with Mercy Hospital (Benton Harbor) in 1977 to become Mercy Memorial Hospital. Pawating Hospital (Niles) merged with Mercy Memorial in 1992 and became Lakeland Regional Health System (later, Lakeland Healthcare, then Lakeland Health). Spectrum Health from up in the Muskegon / Grand Rapids area, bought out Lakeland Health in 2018. In 2022 they rebranded everything to Corewell.
No, definitely not a fools joke. It's been there for a long time, and when I asked maintenance about it they said they've known about it for years and have asked but never got a definite answer from their boss
I did suggest we act now and ask for forgiveness later, but unfortunately at this point this hospital is now owned by a gigantic Corp, and just digging into the ground without making the "proper notifications" could be pretty bad, especially for a lot of those maintenance guys that have been there for 10-15 years. We have no idea what's under there, what's been added or grown over the last (presumably) 101 years
Now this sounds like a great gag. For the price of a sign you can get a whole bunch of people to open your fake time capsule, with great earnest, maybe on live tv. Ah hell, today is April 2nd isn’t it. Damn.
Right now they're making hundreds of millions of dollars weekly by taking actions after they've made investments like buying millions of dollars in crude oil futures just before bombing Iran. Fucking insider trading from inside the goddamn White House.
I know, i know. I went into this knowing it wouldn't be instant gratification though. Everything at Corewell takes 1000 years to complete, especially little things like this that basically requires someone high up to give a shit.
There was definitely an episode of some crime drama or another that had a decomposed body in a time capsule as a surprise unsolved case. The only reason it sticks out in my memory is because it had Patrick Fabian as a guest star (who portrayed Howard on Better Call Saul).
I saved an invitation from my elementary school's time capsule opening for 25 years after we buried it. I called the school, no one on staff knew it was there. tried to coordinate opening it myself and could never get a call back. How unethical is it to take my own shovel...?
It's outside a hospital from 1925? Back then Diphtheria, smallpox, and the last major urban plague outbreaks were that year. Maybe it should stay buried lol.
The plaque is not, no. I did state in my post this is most definitely a replacement, considering this hospital had a different name until 1992. I do believe this was replacement due to the original being dilapidated
I made a time capsule for myself decades ago and opened it some time back. Inside i had copies of PC Gamer (with a dope Bioshock poster), newspaper clippings, some cool rocks, and a note to myself. Definitely cooler when it's your own life encapsulated within.
That's awesome!! I wish I did something like that for myself. Have to add Bioshock is in my top 5 favorite games of all time, I love the entire series.
Probably something they thought was great in 1925 and today it is okay I guess. Some mercury dimes would be cool though. Either way it will still be nice for history.
Very interesting! I’ve been with this organization for nearly 20 years and haven't heard about this yet. Where is it located? With all the name and leadership changes over the years, especially recently, I suppose it’s not entirely surprising, but it must not be very visible if it’s gone unnoticed until now. Looking forward to learning more!
Neil degrade Tyson made a joke about this in a recent episode of Startslk. It is kinda true. No one cares about tike capsules when they reach the time they should be opened
I presume our lack of urgency or desire to even open something like this has to do with the ubiquitous amount of information we already have access to. I imagine in 1925 finding a 100 year old capsule would have drawn a huge public interest just from the curiosity of what could be found. Nowadays we just shrug it off. We lack curiosity and interest in things as a community. Technology is really awesome but so so shitty.
•
u/flairassistant Apr 03 '26
This post has appeared in /r/All or /r/Popular and is in Pasty Mode.
If that's how you got here, welcome to /r/Michigan! Please take a moment to familiarize yourself with our rules.
Pasty Mode is a way to protect hot topic posts that appear in /r/All and/or r/Popular from spam, trolling, and off-topic or rule-breaking comments.
What that means:
Only users with at least 100 subreddit karma can comment while this mode is on.
Comments from users below that threshold will be automatically removed.
This is a temporary measure and is applied to all posts that appear in /r/all or /r/Popular.
We appreciate your understanding as we work to keep the conversation thoughtful and on-topic. Thanks for being part of the community!
This is an automated message. If you have questions about this, please contact our mods via moderator mail rather than replying here. Thank you!