Answer Man: I was in the last fifth grade class to go to Fairbanks Elementary School, 1126 N. Broadway Ave. (It was closed in 2005.) We did a time capsule and we were supposed to open it in like 25 years later or something crazy like that. Could you look into that?
— Sammie Collins, of Springfield
Right now, Sammie, school officials don't know for sure if your time capsule is still buried at the former school, now the nonprofit Drew Lewis Foundation at the Fairbanks.
It's possible, but not likely, that when Fairbanks Elementary closed in 2006 the time capsule might have been dug up and moved to Weaver Elementary, where most of the Fairbanks students were moved to, says Gary Tew, who was Fairbanks principal at the time.
It was his first principal's job in the district.
The time capsule was buried outside Fairbanks school, near what were then the kindergarten rooms and cafeteria, he says. The items collected are in a PVC pipe. He put them in there.
“I remember buying the PVC and putting in stuff from the students that were there and then burying it again,” Tew says.
Dug up one time capsule and buried another in same spot
Tew seems to recall the fifth-graders at the time each wrote something that went into the capsule, with items from other students, too. Faribanks was a school for students in kindergarten through fifth grade. The school is located at 1126 North Broadway Ave. in Springfield's Grant Beach neighborhood.
Sammie Collins — then Samantha Ubina — would have been in second or third grade.
Tew, now 58, recalls he buried the capsule in the same spot where he had just dug up another. The former time capsule had been put in the ground during the 1976-77 school year.
The Springfield News-Leader ran a story on Oct. 19, 2001, focusing on the retrieval of the older capsule, which was in a metal container.
Tew says he recalls using a metal detector to find the first one.
That first capsule was placed in the ground at the end of Rebecca Steelman's 13 years as principal at Fairbanks, which was built in 1906 and is named after a former Springfield Public Schools superintendent.
Steelman, then 89, returned in 2001 for the time capsule opening. She died in 2006.
Former principal says he will keep digging
Contents of the first capsule included art supplies, school enrollments and phone numbers, a map of the attendance boundaries and a lunch menu for March 27, 1976, that read: “golden fish squares with tarter sauce, fluffy potatoes with cheese topping, seasoned spinach, peanut butter sandwich and half-pint of milk.”
Tew tells me there was a quick turn-around in unearthing the first time capsule and placing the new one in the ground in 2001.
He recalls that October 2001 was not long after the terrorist attacks on the United States of Sept. 11, 2001. Tew does not recall if any items in the time capsule were related to the attack.
He also does not recall exactly where the new time capsule was buried and this time, he says, a metal detector most likely would be of little use because the container is made of PVC, a synthetic resin.
Neither does Tew recall how long the capsule was supposed to remain buried before it was to be retrieved and opened.
A good chance it might still be there
Tew left Fairbanks to become principal at Pittman Elementary School, 2934 E. Bennett St.
He was replaced as principal at Fairbanks by Janelle Andrus.
Andrus was principal when Fairbanks was closed. She then became principal at Weaver Elementary.
Tew tells me he spoke to Andrus about the time capsule, and Andrus does not recall digging it up and moving it to Weaver.
It sounds like there's a good chance it's still there at Fairbanks, Sammie.
Tew retired in 2020, but this school year was re-hired for one year as director of elementary schools, working mostly to train assistant principals.
In the meantime, Tew tells me, the question has piqued his interest and he will continue to investigate by contacting former Fairbanks employees.
This is Answer Man column No. 68.
