The exterior wall of McMinnville City Hall was repaired this week. It was damaged in December 2018.

WASCO, a masonry contractor, began placing exterior slabs of stones Tuesday morning. 

“Matching the black stone was difficult,” said WASCO representative Shawn Mathews. “The city originally thought it was black marble, but it wasn’t. It’s manmade. When someone from WASCO looked it at, we knew. We had to try to match the coloration of the existing stone.” 

The building was damaged 17 months ago when a motorist struck it.

Waymon Hale Construction is overseeing the repairs due to the collision causing structural damage to the building.

On hand was Mayor Ben Newman with a time capsule that was discovered in March. The box was placed in the exterior wall by City Bank & Trust representatives when the building was constructed in 1968-69 and was forgotten.

“It’s still amazing to me that it was there and it took someone striking the building for it to be found,” said Newman. “Even after the building was hit, no one called to say ‘There’s a time capsule located there.’ I guess it was forgotten with the passage of time. After it was found, people remembered.”

The time capsule contained various items from that era including pictures from the groundbreaking ceremony on May 31, 1968, a write-up of that event, a letter from the mayor, Southern Standard newspapers, and miscellaneous knick-knacks.

Newman added a letter, pictures of downtown’s renovation, a Southern Standard, and more. A plaque will be placed on the wall alerting future generations to the time capsule’s existence.