Time capsule to contain legacy of Charleroi glassmaking

It will be buried at noon Monday in Meadow Avenue Park and won’t be opened for 100 years.

Charleroi will close out one of the most defining chapters in its history with a ceremony meant to outlast all of us.

At noon Monday, borough officials, former glassworkers, families and community members will gather at Meadow Avenue Park for the dedication and burial of a time capsule honoring 132 years of glassmaking in the Magic City.

The capsule will be sealed and placed in the ground exactly where generations once walked to and from the Corning plant. It will not be opened for 100 years.

The idea started small, but has since grown into something much bigger than anyone could have hoped.

Since news began to spread of the plant’s closure, families of former employees began to reach out, offering boxes of keepsakes.

Current workers dropped off items from their final days in the plant, and some people arrived simply with stories.

The result is a collection so large the 55-gallon capsule will not even come close to holding all of it.

Inside the capsule will go the items that define what the plant meant to the people who kept it alive for more than a century.

Old photographs. Newspapers from turning points in the company’s long story.

Sprinkler heads pulled from retired lines.

A Terrible Towel tucked in to represent the region’s identity and pride.

Signed notes from workers written in a logbook that chronicled the final months leading up to the plant’s closure.

One of the most symbolic pieces will be the large American flag that was flown at half staff outside the plant since workers were told the facility would shut down.

It will be folded and placed among the final set of artifacts.

Everything that does not fit will likely be sent to the Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, N.Y., where it will still help tell the story of Charleroi’s role in the evolution of American glassmaking.

The dedication will also recognize the long arc of the plant’s past.

From its beginnings as George A. Macbeth’s glassworks in 1893, through its years as Macbeth Evans, into the Corning era and through each name that followed — Corning Consumer Products, World Kitchen, Corelle Brands, Instant Brands and finally Anchor Hocking — the timeline stretches across more than a century of innovation, reinvention, upheaval and steady work by thousands of local hands.

The whistle that sounded for 132 seconds on April 11 marked the official end, but the capsule aims to preserve everything that came before it.

In a century, when the seal is cracked open, future residents will find a snapshot of Charleroi’s pride and resilience.

They will also find proof that glassmaking here was never just industrial work, it was a craft, it was family, it was the borough’s identity.

The ceremony at Meadow Avenue Park will include brief remarks and the final placement of the capsule.

The precise burial spot within the park will be marked for future generations to gather and honor the people who built the legacy while still leaving something meaningful behind for the people who will one day uncover it.

For more information or questions, call the borough at 724-483-6011.