GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — A treasure from the past has been discovered after a Grand Rapids resident found a time capsule in their home. It all started a few weeks ago when there was a boil water advisory in Grand Rapids, which caused a homeowner's heater to fail.
"Just basically as they were cutting into the ceiling above the bathroom—it wasn't in a box, it was just all this stuff kind of set in a pile basically," said homeowner Jesse Leitch.
People came in to fix the heater and pipes in the house. As they started cutting through walls and the ceilings, they found artifacts and newspapers dating back to 1915.
"I just thought it was really cool. Because, you know, I've always kind of thought about doing stuff like that, you know, if we renovate the place, leave something on the wall for the next guy. And so I just thought it was extremely cool," Leitch said of the discovery. "I knew this place was built in 1910. And so it's just a really old building and made me think about, you know, obviously, some some kid living here thought thought this stuff was important to stick around for some for the next guy."
Leitch said 12 items were found in total. He also said he's found some old treasures in his house before in his bathroom. His daughters said they're surprised all the stuff survived in their home.
"I think it's really cool that all of this stuff just survived through the workers, and we had a bunch of mice who would want to get to all this paper most definitely," said one of Leitch's daughters.
From the items that were found, Leitch said he plans to keep and use most of them.
"With a cast iron pan, I think we want to clean the rust out of it and try like cooking some tiny, tiny food with it and see how that works. Cook over a tea light," he said. "I make music, kind of by myself mostly, but I kind of want to record these and see if I can make something interesting out of them."
Leitch said he's been told it's not uncommon for people to find time capsules or artifacts in their homes in Grand Rapids.
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