Time in a Bottle by Anita Cirulis

President Jacob Heemstra (front left) and other Northwestern Junior College employees gather with construction workers for a ceremony celebrating the laying of Heemstra Hall’s cornerstone in 1950.

Workers were removing Heemstra Hall’s cornerstone this summer in preparation for the building’s demolition when they discovered a metal box tucked inside.

It must have seemed a good idea at the time: Fill a container with Northwestern memorabilia, solder it shut, and place it inside the newly built dormitory.

But 60 years of Midwestern weather foiled the best-laid plans. When maintenance staff stumbled across the time capsule, they knew water pouring from the box didn’t bode well for its contents. Cutting it open, they found a sodden mess of discolored, moldy documents whose pages had fused together.

There was a student handbook as well as the Guide for Conduct for Women Students and Dormitory Regulations. There were also copies of Northwestern’s alumni and student newspapers; a Reformed Church publication; and English- and Dutch-language local newspapers.

Fortunately, additional copies of all of those documents are also stored safely in the college’s archives. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for the one-of-a-kind correspondence from the building’s namesake.

“There was an envelope with a letter from President [Jacob] Heemstra, but all the ink was washed away,” says Jill Haarsma ’95, the president’s assistant, who was present when the box was opened. “That’s the piece that would have been really incredible to have. We’ll never know what he had to say.”

The archives’ copies of the newspapers give details about the dorm’s groundbreaking, which took place in October 1949. President Heemstra introduced the Rev. Henry Colenbrander—president of the Board of Trustees—who “turned up the first sod.”

In the Guide for Conduct, one learns women were required to be in their dorm by 7:30 on weeknights. They had to sign in and out, giving their destination and name of escort, and when leaving town, were given a card to return with the signature of their host or parent. Rooms were to be clean and ready for inspection anytime after 8 a.m.

Heemstra Hall opened in the fall of 1950. Built and furnished for $195,000, it had rooms for 80 female students on three of its four floors and a dining hall on its lowest level. Also included were a kitchen, recreation rooms, snack rooms, laundry room, and lounge with a grand piano.

Heemstra served Northwestern for 60 years—eventually becoming a men’s dorm known for its unique, tight-knit community of “brothers”—before the fire marshal declared it unsafe. The college closed the hall in May and razed it in July.

As one dorm went down, another is going up. A new suite-style men’s residence hall is under construction on the northwest corner of campus. If a time capsule is involved, maintenance director Scott Simmelink has a plan: Put it in a PVC pipe, glue the ends shut, and locate it inside the building—away from any potential source of rain or snow.