Hoover dedicates time capsule to celebrate city's 50th anniversary
Hoover city officials this morning sealed up a time capsule in a wall in the lobby of the Hoover Municipal Center as part of the city’s 50th anniversary celebration.
The time capsule is filled with more than 130 items designed to tell the story of the history of the city and examples of what life is like here in 2017.
City officials chose to have the time capsule ceremony today because today is the actual 50th anniversary of the day the city incorporated on May 18, 1967.
“We’ve grown into an incredible city,” Mayor Frank Brocato told a crowd in the Municipal Center lobby this morning.
The city started out with about 400 people in a 1,900-foot-long strip of land in the Green Valley area off U.S. 31 and has grown to almost 90,000 people spread out over 50 square miles, the mayor said.
“We just thought this was a great way to preserve our history,” Brocato said of the time capsule. The idea is for city leaders 50 years from now to open up the time capsule and “see all the cool things that have made Hoover the great city that it is.”
Items inside the time capsule include a 50th anniversary proclamation from Brocato, a photo of the current mayor and council, a photo of the city’s namesake (William Hoover), books on the history of Hoover, the May 2017 edition of the Hoover Sun newspaper, the Hoover Sun’s magazine commemorating the city’s 50th anniversary, a sample ballot from the city’s 2016 election, a DVD with photos of city events and venues, a list of all the people on city boards, and the city’s 2016 financial report.
There also are Hoover Public Library brochures, Hoover police badges, police and fire challenge coins, a city of Hoover gold lapel pin, a 2016 City of Hoover Christmas tree ornament, plans and renderings for the Riverchase Galleria, menus from the Bluff Park Diner and the Chick-fil-A restaurant at The Grove, brochures from Benton Nissan, the 2017 Hoover Area Chamber of Commerce magazine, a book on Aldridge Gardens, and worship bulletins from several churches.
City officials also had a chance to donate items for the time capsule. Brocato donated one of his campaign T-shirts and his emergency medical technician license. Councilman Mike Shaw added one of his music CDs, his son’s report card from Berry Middle School and a senior photograph of his daughter, while Councilman Derrick Murphy put in one of his campaign stickers and an information card.
Former Mayor Tony Petelos donated a button-down shirt with a business card and a personal note, a police badge and credential, and a state of Alabama lapel pin, while former Mayor Barbara McCollum contributed two shirts, a plaque from the Hoover Coalition Promoting a Safe and Healthy Community and a glass-encased baseball from the 2003 Southeastern Conference Baseball Tournament.
The family of John Hodnett, who served as president of the City Council when the city incorporated and later as Hoover’s fourth mayor, donated a file from 1968 that includes a $56,000 budget request and notes from police and fire committee meetings.
Each Hoover school also contributed items for the time capsule, including yearbooks, school T-shirts, photographs, a Green Valley Elementary pennant and shaker, a banner signed by all the students at Greystone Elementary, a Hoover High Yeti cup and a Spain Park High baseball cap.
Brocato said the vision of businessman William Hoover to create a community south of Vestavia Hills was phenomenal. He predicted that 50 years from now, as city leaders look for ways to diversify the economy, Hoover will double its current size. “We could easily be the largest city in the state,” Brocato said.
Anna Claire Johnson, a senior at Hoover High School, said that to her, what has made Hoover a great city is the spirit of its residents.
People offer help to strangers, buy meals for people they don’t know and fill the high school football stadiums on Friday nights even if they don’t have a direct connection to the schools, she said.
“This community has taught me to be kind to those in need, to spread joy when I can and to realize the strength that comes in numbers, and those lessons have been valuable in making me who I am,” Johnson said. “While Hoover has been an excellent place to grow up, I hope that it is never just the same as it is today. I hope that Hoover continues to progress every day for a better community. I want the people who open this time capsule in 50 years to have a better world.”
While she hopes people in 50 years will have jetpacks, self-driving cars and personal space shuttles, “I also hope they have learned more about embracing the differences between each other,” Johnson said. “I hope they celebrate each other’s cultures and appreciate the value of diversity.”
Johnson said she hopes to be there in 50 years when the time capsule is opened so she can celebrate the city’s rich history again.
Paras Ahuja, a senior at Spain Park High School, said his family moved to Hoover from Rainbow City when he was in the sixth grade, and he felt like he had come to New York City.
“It was so big, but I still felt like I was becoming part of a big, happy family,” Ahuja said.
His teachers helped him catch up on the curriculum, and his fellow students accepted him for who he is, no matter where he started, he said. Hoover is the kind of a city where an Indian family from Rainbow City seeking to live the American dream can find success and acceptance, he said.
Even though Hoover is the sixth-largest city in the state, it is still a close-knit community, he said.
Hoover schools Superintendent Kathy Murphy said that every Hoover resident and business person in the city has been placed in a terrific city such as Hoover “for such a time as this,” much like Esther was made queen of the Persian empire more than 400 years before Christ was born in order to help save the Jewish people from destruction.
“I would encourage us not to miss a single opportunity to make this an even more terrific city than it already is,” Murphy said. “I believe God put me in Hoover City Schools for such a time as this, and I do not want to disappoint him, and I do not want to disappoint you.”
Most, if not all, of the items in the time capsule where put in Ziploc bags to help protect them over time. The time capsule is a metal box and was sealed inside a wall in the lobby of the Municipal Center, just outside the William J. Billingsley Council Chambers.