Glen Echo Fire Department To Unveil Time Capsule 83 Years Later

GLEN ECHO, MD — The community is invited to the Glen Echo Fire Department's time capsule opening Saturday morning, where the contents of a time capsule buried in the first Glen Echo Firehouse will be discovered.

A copper box time capsule was found during a recent demolition of the building that housed the first Glen Echo Firehouse in 1935.

Fire Chief Herbert Leusch will uncover the time capsule at 11 a.m. Saturday. The unveiling will take place at The Inn at Glen Echo located at 6119 Tulane Ave.

The firehouse was built after the tragic Moxley Fire on June 1, 1930. The unveiling location is near the Moxley family home, which "led directly to the creation of Glen Echo FD and construction of the original firehouse," the fire department said.

Glen Echo Fire Department vacated the original firehouse in 1954, and the building was sold to Glen Echo Baptist Church. The baptist church occupied the building until 2012 before donating it to National Community Church.

In 2014, National Community Church sold the property to a developer, and the firehouse was demolished on April 3, 2018 so the land could be subdivided and private homes could be built, the fire department said.

"Members of the GEFD participated in the demolition process to take advantage of this one-time opportunity to preserve some pieces of the fire department’s history," a statement said. "By far the biggest curiosity discovered was a mysterious copper box, encased within the cornerstone of the building and sealed with a layer of concrete - presumably a time capsule hidden during the original construction of the firehouse."

Photos via Glen Echo Fire Department