PORT ANGELES — With roughly 30 attendees watching, a tan cloth was pulled off a time capsule honoring Port Angeles’ 150th birthday year at a dedication ceremony at the historic Clallam County Courthouse on Saturday.
Clallam County Commissioners Mike Doherty and Jim McEntire attended the dedication, hosted by Port Angeles Mayor Cherie Kidd.
“Port Angeles has 150 years of colorful history, and we’re adding to it today,” Kidd said at the ceremony.
Alice Donnelly, co-chair with Kidd of the city’s sesquicentennial committee, joined the mayor in pulling the covering off the time capsule and revealing it to the gathered crowd.
The ceremony was the last official event in celebration of Port Angeles’ 150th birthday.
The capsule, a knee-high, two-drawer file cabinet encased in a cherry wood casing custom built by Westport Shipyard’s cabinet shop staff, will be moved to the historic courthouse’s Lincoln-Street-facing flight of marble stairs.
The wooden casing featured a sesquicentennial logo designed by Johnnie Montice from Captain T’s Gift Shoppe and Custom Stuff in Port Angeles.
“Our youth will be here in 50 years to open it and reveal the treasures,” Kidd said.
Treasures in the capsule include patches from the Port Angeles Police Department, a 2011 model cellphone, and drawings and essays detailing what Port Angeles elementary school students think Port Angeles will look like in 2062, when the capsule will be opened for the city’s bicentennial.
City and county documents, and special festival sections from the Peninsula Daily News also are included.
Kidd thanked Donnelly and all the other volunteers on the subcommittee that organized all the items for the capsule and drove home the importance of keeping history alive.
“The community has said this is our history, so let’s make it special,” Kidd said.
Commissioner Doherty congratulated Kidd and the City of Port Angeles on the time capsule and the city’s 150th birthday and also spoke a bit about the history of Port Angeles and the construction of the courthouse, built in 1912 with a wood frame and a brick-and-mortar outer structure for about $57,000.
The courthouse’s 1912 construction price is equivalent to about $1.3 million in 2012 dollars, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics inflation calculator.
The ceremony also featured an appearance by the family of the city’s “Sesquicentennial Baby,” the first child born in Port Angeles in 2012.
“We started the year with this baby, and we’re ending the year with this baby,” Kidd said, referring to Sesquicentennial Baby Melania Cristine Burke.
Melania Burke was picked as the first baby born in Port Angeles this year by Olympic Medical Center staff, said Melania’s mother, Becca Burke.
In an interview after the ceremony, Burke said nurses approached her while she was in labor about the city being interested in honoring her daughter by making her the city’s “Sesquicentennial Baby.”
Burke said she and her husband, James, were hesitant at first but decided to go for it once they realized what an honor it would be.
“We graciously accepted,” Burke said. “It was a blessing.”
Burke and her husband, who works for the city’s public works department, have lived in Port Angeles for four years and have two other children: 5-year-old Maria and 2-year-old Nicholas.
Reporter Jeremy Schwartz can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5074, or at jschwartz@peninsuladailynews.com.
