Community gathers as Winnetka cracks open 50-year-old time capsule

In a 1976 essay, then-Winnetka sixth-grader Barbara Brott wrote about the Bill of Rights and the U.S. Constitution. 

For her work, Brott took home first place. But she didn’t take home the essay. 

Instead, it has lived behind a brick in Winnetka’s City Hall for 50 years until it was unpacked, along with the other items of a time capsule during a ceremony to open the Village of Winnetka’s holiday weekend on Friday morning at the Village Green. 

Brott, who has lived in California for 20 years, never forgot about the capsule, so when her brother Lawrence invited her to attend the capsule opening with him, she said yes and flew in to read it.  

“I was thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, that’s a long trip from California,’” Brott said. “But then, the more I thought about it … this only happens once in a lifetime.”

Hundreds of residents gathered on the village green for the ceremony, which the Village planned as a part of the America 250 celebration. Inside the capsule lay aerial photographs of the community, a “USA 200” license plate, city official medallions and Brott’s speech.

On the steps of City Hall, Brott read her 50-year-old work aloud. She wrote about the importance of the fifth amendment and how she believed the second amendment should be changed with an increase of gun violence in the country.

During the ceremony, Winnetka Historical Society President Carrie Hoza asked if anyone in the audience had attended the 1976 opening of a 1926 capsule, and just a handful raised their hands. Among the bunch were Carol and Edwin Read, who remembered many details about the event: the weather, her children and the parade.

“I’m so glad we’re here,” Carol Read said. “We’ve lived in this village for 57 years, raised our family and watched all our grandchildren grow up here. And I figured out, our grandkids … they’re going to be 70 years old for (America) 300.”

The village planned the ceremonious opening of the 1976 time capsule as a part of the America 250 celebration.

Brott recalled the year 1976 and how big the country’s bicentennial was.

“The whole year was geared toward the celebration,” Brott said. “ … I just seem to remember like every store had celebratory remarks or products … or signs outside. It was kind of fun. It seemed like a big deal at the time.”

Winnetka Historical Society curator Meagan McChesney reflected on opening the time capsule during the country’s 250th birthday.

“I do think any type of anniversary is a call for public recollection,” McChesney said. “You think, ‘250 years, where did we come from, how did we get to where we are now?’ I think the point of a time capsule is to show a moment in time, so it’s also an impetus for reflection on how things have changed in historical continuity as well as changes.”

The Winnetka Historical Society plans to display the capsule items in their building 411 Linden Street. They will curate a committee soon to pick the items for the village’s next time capsule.

Carol Read said if she were to put something in the next time capsule, to be opened in 2076, it would be a picture of Winnetka children at the Fourth of July parade.

“All these children (Saturday, July 4), the little ones, will be marching around with the band playing on the village green,” Carol Read said. “And that’s the future. That would be a wonderful thing.”

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