On Sunday, July 27, 1902, at 4:30 in the afternoon, over a thousand people gathered at the construction site of the new St. William Church building at 13th and Oak Streets for the blessing and laying of the cornerstone. Bishop William G. McCloskey presided while the Very Rev. James P. Cronin, V.G. preached. The pastor, Rev. Denis Murphy carefully placed a glass jar time capsule inside the cornerstone before the bricklayer sealed the stone.
Almost a hundred years later, on March 31, 2001, in preparation for the Centennial of the founding of the St. William Community, the cornerstone was carefully unsealed by Thomas Johnson, owner of Keystone Restorations. With great care, the glass time capsule was removed from the inside of the cornerstone by Anne Walter, Minister of Formation for St. William.
The contents of the time capsule turned out to be copies of three local newspapers -- The Record, The Kentucky Irish American and The Louisville Times -- which were published the same week the cornerstone was laid. There was also a page of folded notepaper with handwriting on it, but the poor condition of the paper made the writing impossible to read. The time capsule and its contents were reverently displayed at a pot-luck and story-telling gathering of the St. William community on May 20, 2001, at the House of Ruth Center on East St. Catherine Street