RICHMOND, Va. — Gov. Ralph Northam's office announced Friday morning that crews taking apart the Robert E. Lee statue's pedestal in Richmond might have found a time capsule historians have been looking for.
His spokesperson said construction workers "noticed something that looked 'different'" inside a large block in the pedestal.
They hadn't confirmed if it was the time capsule by 10:30 a.m. Northam's office said they'd have to take the block out of the pedestal and get it safely down to the ground, 20 feet below, before historic preservation teams could get a close look at it.
Records from the Library of Virginia indicate there should be a copper box somewhere near the monument, placed there on October 27, 1887.
Among the items inside: there might be a rare, historically important photo of Abraham Lincoln. There could be up to 60 things inside the capsule, and some could be Confederate artifacts.
When Northam and the Virginia court system made the decision to take the statue down, teams assigned were asked to check around the base to look for the box. In September, construction crews spent hours trying to find the time capsule but didn't have any luck.
They even scanned a void near the base where they thought the capsule would have been which was empty.
After the search, Northam put a 2021 time capsule into the pedestal, with items to commemorate this year's watershed moments, like COVID-19 and the Black Lives Matter movement.
The box found on Dec. 17 was 20 feet in the air, 8 feet from the outside of the granite, and about a foot separated from the statue's core.
Northam's spokesman said it would likely take all of Friday to verify if what construction crews found is, indeed, the time capsule. If that's the case, the Department of Historic Resources will be tasked with safely opening it to protect the items inside.