New Haveners were fighting a war a world away — as four hometown newspapers reported in front-page headlines.
The year was 1918. New Haven was building a new Davis Street School in Westville. The builders placed a time capsule in the cornerstone.
New Haven tore down that school building last year. Today it’s building a new home for the school, renamed Davis Street 21st Century Magnet, on the same spot. The builders rescued the 1918 time capsule; with held breath and wide eyes, the Davis community opened the box Thursday to see what was inside. (Click on the play arrow to watch.)
They discovered a trove of New Haven newspapers — and a lesson in early 20th versus early 21st century news reporting.
Paul Bass Photo
Students didn’t know what to expect as they stared at the unmarked metal box and waited for the ceremonial opening Thursday morning in the sunny atrium of Davis’s Legion Avenue lodgings, where the school is camped out during construction on its permanent new $45 million home. (Builders have erected 75 percent of the structural steel; official hope for a December 2010 opening.)
“I think it’s a picture of the principal and the vice-principal from 1918,” guessed sixth-grader Sandeep Sasidharan (at left in photo).
“Maybe letters people wrote back from their pen pals,” ventured fifth-grader Leah Rivers (standing beside him).
Alas, when Superintendent of Schools Reggie Mayo finally opened the lid, no personal notes were to be found. No pictures of Davis principals or teachers. No stories of what it was like to be a student here in 1918.
There was treasure nonetheless.
Mayo delicately unfolded a yellowed, pockmarked, crumbly sheet of paper. it listed the names of public officials at the time of the laying of the Davis cornerstone, from the president (Woodrow Wilson) and governor (Marcus Holcomb) down to the mayor (David Fitzgerald) and the members of the Board of Ed.
After a ceremonial reading by fifth-grader John Mensah, Mayo fished out the rest of the box’s contents: Daily New Haven newspapers from May 18, 1918.
There were four of them. He laid them out one by one on a circular table. Students crowded around to pore over the headlines with Mayo as he turned the pages.
Every paper had a different top story. But all the stories concerned the world war that was hurtling to an end six months into the future.
“NEW HAVEN’S MISSING BOYS ARE CAPTIVES IN GERMANY” blared the top front page of the one-penny New Haven Union. (Lower down: “MAYOR DRAWING UP MORE PLANS FOR ITALY DAY.”)
“RED CROSS IS BINDING UP THE WOUNDS OF THE WARRING WORLD” declared the Times-Leader.
The Evening Register (2 cents per copy), the only surviving print daily in town: “LUFBERY KILLED IN AERIAL BATTLE”
And the last of the fallen new Haven dailies, the Journal Courier: “FOUR ENEMY RAIDERS FELLED IN AIR DASH.” (Inside could be found an advertisement for the old PJ Kelly furniture store on Temple Street, which has been reborn with homage to its Irish roots.)
From Mayo on down, the grownups marveled at the fact that New Haven — now a one-print-daily newspaper town — had at least four print dailies then. (On the other hand, it had zero daily news websites.)
Davis instructional coach Julie Browning (pictured alongside Gilbane construction project manager Claude Watt, who was responsible for the time capsule discovery) noticed another parallel: When Davis was first built, the U.S. was immersed in a war abroad. As the new Davis is being built, the U.S. is immersed in another war abroad. Two wars, actually. Browning picked up the front page of the April 1, 2010, Register (now a morning paper). She found no headlines about Afghanistan or Iraq.
“Our headlines today — school budgets, jury cases,” Browning reflected. “Maybe our priorities have changed.”
Browning said she will assign students to study those old newspapers found in the time capsule with today’s Register, to see what parallels and differences they notice.
Meanwhile, Superintendent Mayo issued two assignments to the assembled students. One: Research that war those old newspapers were writing about. And decide what Davis should put into a new capsule to be buried under the new school opening soon.
Click here to read a series of stories on life at Davis Street School this year.
Browning reflected. "Maybe our priorities have changed."
This shows a distinct lack of knowledge regarding history and the state of the world during WWI which according to Wikipedia: "More than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, were mobilized in one of the largest wars in history. More than 15 million people were killed"
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