HASSO HERING

The downtown Albany demolition site as it looked on Tuesday afternoon.

Hopes of finding a time capsule in the ruins of the former First National Bank Building in downtown Albany have faded.

The corner of the building at First Avenue and Broadalbin Street, the corner where the time capsule was presumed to be buried, has not yielded the item even after being completely excavated.

I went by the corner on a bike ride Tuesday and also checked with Keith Lohse, the executive director of the Albany Regional Museum.

The museum had hoped to receive the capsule if and when it was found. Lohse told me he now doubted the item was there at all.

Belief in the time capsule’s existence was based on a story in the Albany Weekly Democrat of Dec. 13, 1912. The paper reported that a box containing memorabilia including papers and a copper penny had been placed that afternoon in the cornerstone of the five-story bank building then under construction.

The 1912 paper said the box was placed inside a big block of sandstone. As far as Lohse knows, the demolition uncovered no such block of stone.

Looking at the demolition site, all one sees is broken concrete and assorted debris. So what happened to the box?

Maybe it was removed when the building underwent extensive changes starting in 1973. That’s when the top floors were taken off and the remaining structure was heavily remodeled.

The building last housed the downtown branch of Wells Fargo Branch. The branch was closed in 2018. The Albany urban renewal agency bought the property in 2019, hoping to have someone redevelop it.

When that plan foundered on the rocks of economic reality, the council decided last year to have the building razed, hoping that an empty lot would be more attractive to potential developers.

The demolition contractor has until some time in June to finish the job, remove the rubble, and fill the hole. (hh)