OWENSBORO, Ky. (WEHT) — At the start of October, the Immaculate Catholic Church began to execute plans to renovate its church facility. Hartz Construction Company started demolishing the outside wall to extend the gathering space and discovered a time capsule hidden in the 1966 cornerstone block.

Father John Vaughan says it was difficult to keep himself from taking a peek inside.

“Oh, it was a real urge but the fact that it was soldered shut. So, you couldn’t just open it. That helped…I wanted to look but I didn’t,” said Father Vaughan.

Ben Hartz says the company often discovers items during projects, but this one held a special surprise.

“The neatest part for me was seeing the directory they had included of the members, when it was built. I got to see my grandfather’s name in there, who was an original member, so that was pretty neat,” said Hartz.

Other items found inside included a list of parishioners, polaroids from building the church, a 1967 issue of the Messenger-Inquirer, and a dollar bill.

Father Vaughan says they already had plans to bury a time capsule of their own.

“A Parrish list, a cell phone, a coffee [keurig] cup, just things that are current in 2023, but 50-60 years from now — whenever that’s found, people are gonna say ‘what in the world is this?’,” said the pastor.

Matt Gray, the chairman of the renovation committee, say the idea for the church renovation comes from a dream.

‘It’s been about a 5 to 7 year dream, now, from the very beginning of its conception. To renovate the space, it was made to be pretty maintenance-free at the time. It is pretty dated for 1960s..Over the years, how a church is designed has changed since [the] 1960s, and we wanted to incorporate some of those things in how we pray, and how we sing, and how we’re able to worship as a Parrish,” said Gray.

The church says they hopes to have everything completed by July 2024.

“It’s really just a building, but we’re hoping this whole process will help us to renovate ourselves, our own faith, our own trust of the lord, own commitment to one another. So, we hope there’s that spiritual benefit. Otherwise, we’re just slapping up some new paint and moving furniture,” said Father Vaughan.