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(CNN) - Renovation work at Montclair State University in New Jersey uncovered a 112-year-old letter from workers who built one of the original buildings on campus, the university said.
Robert Kanaby, a demolition worker, found the letter inside a beer bottle while tearing down a wall in the College Hall building in February.
"It's a very old brick wall, about 14 feet (about 4 meters) with three layers of brick," Kanaby said. "So I went brick by brick with a tool."
Then he heard glass breaking and knew something was wrong, he said. When he cleaned the debris, he found the bottle with a letter inside.
"This is to certify that this wall was built by two masons from Newark, NJ, with the names of William Hanly and James Lennon, members of the number 3 of the BMIU of the United States," said the letter, dated July 3 of 1907.
"These guys were working on this, just working around July 4 and drinking beers, and they decided to write this note for us to find," Kanaby said.
He immediately took her to Sharon Mahoney, director of construction management at the university, who was stunned by the discovery.
The letter found during the renovation work.
"It is surprising to think that if he had begun to sting a few feet in any direction, the bottle could have been left inside a section of the wall that was knocked down in one piece and perhaps never found," said Mahoney.
University officials have spent the past few months learning more about the men who left the note. In the 1920 census records, they found a 33-year-old William J. Hanly, who lived on Central Avenue in Newark. They also found a mason named James Lennon, born around 1875, who also lived in Newark, from the 1930 census data.
View of the area where the works are carried out.
The university has also been trying to find relatives of the men who wrote the note, but have had no luck. The university plans to display the letter and the bottle, as well as other artifacts found in the construction project, said Mike Zanko, associate vice president of capital planning and project management for the university.
“These two men laid the original bricks of Montclair State University, and they are part of their history and their transformation from a New Jersey Teachers College into a research doctoral institution, a public research university and the second most big state, ”said a university spokesman. "They will always be part of our community, and we hope that their message, and ours, will find their descendants so that we can welcome them to the Red Hawk family."
Letter Message in bottle
