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The Detroit City Hall in 1900. It was demolished in 1961.

The Detroit Century Box is a time capsule that was created in the U.S. city of Detroit, Michigan on December 31, 1900. Mayor William C. Maybury organized the capsule which consists of a copper box filled with photos and letters containing the then current state of affairs in Detroit along with predictions for the future. Mayor Dennis Archer presided over the opening of the capsule on December 31, 2000.[1][2]

Contents

At 11:20 pm on December 31, 2000, Mayor Archer opened the copper “century box” before a ceremony of Detroiters and read a handwritten letter that Mayor Maybury wrote a century earlier:

“How much faster are you traveling? How much farther have you annihilated time and space and what agencies are you employing to which we are strangers?”

He addressed the next century of Detroiters, expressing hope that the letters show “what advancement you have made from the modest beginnings to which we are witnesses.”[3]

He ended the letter with “May we be permitted to express one supreme hope – that whatever failures the coming century may have in the progress of things material, you may be conscious when the century is over that, as a nation, people and city, you have grown in righteousness, for it is this that exalts a nation.”[3]

Detroit in 1900

Our buildings of today are equipped with fast running elevators, heating, lighting, power plants…

— John M. Donaldson, Rise of Architecture in Detroit[4]

In the diocese there 218 priests – 44 Regulars – 174 Seculars. 198 Churches and missions…

— John Samuel Foley, Letter to William C. Maybury[5]

We travel by railroad and with steam power from Detroit to Chicago in less than eight hours…

— William C. Maybury, Letter of William C. Maybury[6]

Predictions for the future

In AD 2000, I think it not improbable that Detroit will enjoy a population of fully four millions.

— James E. Scripps, Letter to William C. Maybury[7]

I predict further that Sandwich, Windsor and Walkerville now in Canada will be a part of the City of Detroit and that Ontario will be a state of the United States of America.

— Orrin R. Baldwin, Letter to William C. Maybury[8]

…fear concerning woman’s use of the ballot will have passed away, and by her use of the ballot, there will be less evil and a higher civilization.

— Sara M. Philleo Skinner, Woman’s Suffrage – Retrospect and Prophecy[9]

That prisoners instead of being conveyed to the several police stations in Automobile patrol wagons will be sent through pneumatic tubes, flying machines, or some similar process.

— Commissioners of the Metropolitan Police Commission, Letter to William C. Maybury[10]

…that the factory products will be largely transported in Air Ships and discrimination against Detroit shippers will then be a thing of the past; that mechanical skill will control the river’s current and the rays of the sun to make power for the industries.

— Orrin R. Baldwin, Detroit’s Industrial and Commercial possibilities[11]

Notable letter writers

See also

References

  1. ^ Andrea Cecil, “100-year-old time capsule opened in Detroit” Archived 2013-06-19 at the Wayback Machine Republished from the Kalamazoo Gazette (January 2, 2001). Retrieved August 13, 2013
  2. ^ “Future Friday: Century Box Prophecies” Detroit Historical Society. Retrieved August 13, 2013
  3. ^ a b Webber, Carrie (2 January 2001). “Time capsule captures the future”. Kalamazoo Gazette. Archived from the original on 19 June 2013. Retrieved 13 August 2025.
  4. ^ a b “Rise of Architecture in Detroit”. Detroit Historical Society.
  5. ^ a b “Letter written by John Samuel Foley”. Detroit Historical Society.
  6. ^ a b “Letter written by William C. Maybury”. Detroit Historical Society.
  7. ^ a b “Letter written by James E. Scripps”. Detroit Historical Society.
  8. ^ “Letter written by Orrin R. Baldwin”. Detroit Historical Society.
  9. ^ “Woman’s Suffrage – Retrospect and Prophecy”. Detroit Historical Society.
  10. ^ “Metropolitan Police Commission”. Detroit Historical Society.
  11. ^ “Orrin R. Baldwin”. Detroit Historical Society.
  12. ^ “Letter written by Annie M. Knott”. Detroit Historical Society.
  13. ^ “Letter written by Charles L. Freer”. Detroit Historical Society.
  14. ^ “Real Estate Titles in Detroit, Past, Present and Future”. Detroit Historical Society.
  15. ^ “The Past, Present and Future of the Colored Race in Detroit”. Detroit Historical Society.
  16. ^ “The Growth of Manufacturing in Detroit During the Nineteenth Century”. Detroit Historical Society.
  17. ^ “Progress of Journalism in the Last Century”. Detroit Historical Society.