Grace Baptist Church Anniversary

Grace Baptist Church in Plymouth will be celebrating their 50 year anniversary this summer.  They have a dedication marker in the corner of their front entrance commemorating the 1961 establishment of the Church.  There has been some debate regarding whether there is a time capsule behind this stone.  Some of the Church Elders believing that there is a time capsule there and would like to open it as part of the anniversary celebration.

Because of the various projects we’ve completed for the Church, Pastor Elliott asked if we knew if there was a time capsule there or if there was a way of finding out without damaging the marker.  I looked at the marker and the wall and was a little skeptical.  The marker is carved limestone.  From all indications the wall is block with the limestone exterior as a veneer.  The thickness doesn’t really lend itself to allow for a cavity since the total wall thickness is not much more than 12″.  That would allow for 8″ block with 4″ limestone veneer.  If the marker stone is 2″ thick, there might be a 2″ cavity behind it.  If they had also switched to 4″ block in this area, they could have possibly created a 6″ cavity.

I discussed removing the marker with Pastor Elliott.  Even if the marker is only 2″ thick, it would be difficult to cut the mortar surrounding it.  We would not be able to cut all the way to the corners to the full depth with a circular blade without damaging the surrounding stone.  If we stopped short of cutting full depth at the corners to protect the surrounding stone, we would be forced to chip out the remaining mortar taking the chance of damaging the marker.  This on the chance that there is a time capsule…

Matt Peregrine

I made an alternate suggestion that we drill a hole in the block behind the marker and use a camera to check for a cavity.  Matt Peregrine of Peregrine Heating and Cooling has a camera and volunteered to donate part of his Saturday to help.  Matt’s son Steven just completed 5th grade at Grace Baptist School and came along to check out the exploration.  We met this past Saturday, May 28th, to see what we could find.

We used a hammer drill and drilled three holes in the wall.  The first hole was drilled directly behind the marker.  This hole found no cavity.  Not even a block core void.  We went as far as we dared for fear of damaging the marker and were in approximately 8″ when we stopped.  The second hole was drilled above the marker with the idea that we could look down into any cavity.  We had difficulty bending the camera to see down in the gap between the block and stone, so we used that same hole as a starting point and drilled at a 45 degree angle down towards the marker.  In second and third holes we were able to see the gap between the stones, but found no void.   While this didn’t conclusively eliminate the possibility, we felt we had pressed our luck far enough and the Church Elders needed to hear what we found and decide if more destruction was warranted.  I spoke to Pastor Elliott this week and he is going to report our findings to the Church Board.  At this time they plan no more exploration.

I want to thank Matt Peregrine for generously donating his time.  He told me he felt like Geraldo Rivera when he was looking for Al Capone’s vault since the whole thing had an anticlimactic ending.  Apologies to Steven.  I guess he didn’t get to be the first to see the time capsule, but he did get to see his father giving generously of his time and equipment.  Hopefully that will inspire him in the future.