Time capsule insight

Stephen Mikoski was one of the first students to attend Queen Elizabeth School in 1938.

He remembers the 1938 cornerstone – still intact today – being installed shortly after the school opened in September 1938 and said the cornerstone is a time capsule. Now 83 years old, he can remember a newspaper and a nickel being placed inside.

Jars buried on Arbour Day in 1946 were discovered in the roots of an upturned tree on the site of the former public school early last week. Contractors discovered pencils, chalk, coins and an assortment of other items inside the small pickle jars, including pieces of paper with names of students and teachers.

Mikoski can remember his name being taken down to go in one of the time capsules and believes even more jars may be buried on the school grounds.

“One time some of the girls figured they’d put something under the tree,” he said. “They were planting a tree, so they collected our names and put them in a jar. It was a tree down the far end of the school.”

Many of the names written on the aging pieces of paper were familiar to Mikoski, who noted two of the students lived next door to the Ontario Street school. Another’s family owned a store that used to sit on the corner of Ontario Street and Queen Street.

He recalls the store being moved to High Street by horse.

“One horse moved it by pulling, like a wheel stuck in the ground and the horse would run in circles using it like a winch and they’d pull that way from there,” he said.

Before Queen Elizabeth School opened to students, a small ballpark was set up on school grounds behind the building. The home plate was at the far end of the property and the first person up to bat hit a home run, breaking a window on the brand new school.

“That was the christening of the school I guess,” Mikoski said.

Queen Elizabeth School was closed in June 1992. It’s now being converted into an apartment complex.