Bill Lawson, executive director of the Mahoning Valley Historical Society, is shown with items from the original time capsule from the Mahoning County Courthouse, which was removed from the cornerstone of the courthouse in 2011. At top is a program for the cornerstone laying of the Mahoning County Courthouse in 1908. Staff photo / Ed Runyan

YOUNGSTOWN — Completion about two years ago of a $6 million renovation of the Mahoning County Courthouse will be celebrated during a 3 p.m. Aug. 23 ceremony at the courthouse.

A key part of the event will be the placing of a new time capsule in the building’s cornerstone, replacing the one that was removed in 2011, prior to the start of the renovation project. The contents are in the care of the Mahoning Valley Historical society.

Commissioners chairwoman Carol Rimedio-Righetti said the event will “let the people of Mahoning County see the great courthouse we have, the restoration project we did that started many years ago — and to put the materials in the time capsule.”

She said after the time capsule is placed, everyone will be invited inside for a tour and refreshments. She said the plan is to open this time capsule in another 100 years.

“Of course we will not be here, but our ancestors will be. It will be something very heartwarming for them to see materials or a writeup about someone they are related to or the commissioners,” she said.

Rimedio-Righetti said the final selections to be included in the time capsule have not yet been finalized, but Bill Lawson, executive director of the Mahoning Valley Historical Society, is helping with the process.

Lawson gave The Vindicator a look last week at the contents of the earlier time capsule. It contained items such as Youngstown newspapers, a copy of the program from the laying of the cornerstone June 11, 1908, and a small block of marble provided by the company that provided the building materials for the courthouse. It was inscribed with the names of the building’s architects, contractor and members of the building committee.

Perhaps one of the most surprising things about the capsule was that it had only one photograph in it — of the children of Glenwood Children’s Home on Millet Avenue, the forrunner of today’s Mahoning County Children’s Services Board. A children’s home was similar to an orphanage.

Another thing Lawson found surprising was that the block of marble had deteriorated in the time capsule because it reacted to the copper or zinc of the time-capsule box. Lawson said he thinks the people who placed the time capsule didn’t realize that the marble would react to the copper box.

“When we pulled it out in 2011, that is the condition it was in, and as you can see it is still losing materials here, so we have to be very careful with it,” he said.

Rimedio-Righetti said there is a chance that someone in the public could still submit something to be placed in the new time capsule, so they can contact the commissioners office if they have an interest.

BEAUTIFUL BUILDING

“Isn’t this beautiful,” Rimedio-Righetti said of the courthouse last week while being photographed near the building’s cornerstone. “The whole renovation project inside is just beautiful. I would put our courthouse with any one in the United States. If the walls could only speak,” she said of the history.

The placing of the time capsule was expected to take place about a year ago, but the making of a plaque for the cornerstone and some delays in obtaining the materials for the time capsule delayed the project, Rimedio-Righetti said. COVID-19 also delayed the ceremony.

“I hope everyone in Mahoning County, or you could be from anywhere, will be with us that day. It will be a great experience,” she said.

Rimedio-Righetti expressed a hope last year that a re-enactment could be carried out of a 1908 parade down West Federal Street to the current courthouse when the cornerstone of the current courthouse was placed. But she said last week that extensive road construction downtown would have made that difficult.

Lawson gave a presentation to the commissioners last year to commemorate the 175th anniversary of Mahoning County. It included photos of the huge crowd of people who lined West Federal Street for the parade and other activities associated with the laying of the cornerstone in 1908. The building was formally dedicated in March 1911, “and has been the seat of Mahoning County government and courts ever since,” Lawson said.

THE RENOVATIONS

Among the renovations carried out are a new roof and downspouts, exterior cleaning and restoration, replacement of exterior lighting fixtures with LED lights, new lighting that shines onto the courthouse from ground level, repair of the copper statues on the roof, replacement of pieces of the molded, clay brick — known as terra cotta — on the building and replacement of netting to keep birds off the structure.

The improved lighting was done in an effort to make the courthouse a nighttime attraction for the downtown, the commissioners have said. “We felt it would be a heck of a way to showcase our courthouse,” Commissioner Anthony Traficanti said in 2019 when the work was being completed.

Rimedio-Righetti said the work was done to preserve “one of the oldest buildings in Youngstown and Mahoning County, bring it back to its original look and make Mahoning County proud.”

A 1907 article in the Youngstown Vindicator discussed the plans for the new courthouse, which replaced a smaller one up the street at Wick Avenue and East Wood Street that was built in 1876 . It replaced the first county courthouse in Canfield, which was completed in 1848, one year after the first Mahoning County fair.

The 1907 article said of the new building: “It was the purpose of the architects to make a building that would serve the needs of the community for decades to come, one that would be solid and substantial and at the same time beautiful.”

The article described one of the structure’s highlights: “Going into the building, one is in a rotunda reaching clear to the top of the building and ending in a dome which is invisible from the outside. Broad stairways lead to the right and left of the rotunda, and there are open spaces beyond the stairways, which, like the rotunda, are open clear to the top, bringing an abundance of light into the building.”