Last year’s 43023 Day in Granville was a once-in-a-lifetime event when the date replicated the village’s zip code.
Well, once in a lifetime, unless you survive until 2123, when you’ll get a second chance to celebrate 43023 Day.
Those 22nd-century Granvillians will have an exciting day ahead of them, with a gift from this century’s residents to look forward to, sealed in a time capsule under the Granville Historical Society’s floorboards.
Inside the stainless steel cylinder is a 16-foot wide, 17-inch tall mural created by Granville artist Sarah Gray alongside the community of Granville at 43023 Day last year. The mural depicts visions of what Granville might look like in 100 years.
Visitors to last year’s celebration sketched their ideas, before Gray, a Bryn Du Art Center instructor, added some background elements to make it more cohesive. The painting shows aspirational scenes of travel by bubble, building-sized flowers, and even hopes for the Cleveland Guardians to relocate to a new stadium in the village.
“We wanted to create this mural with the community,” said Steve Matheny, Executive Director of the Granville Area Chamber of Commerce. “It’s kids, adults, seniors–anyone who wanted to paint a vision of what they think Granville will look like 100 years from now.”
The Chamber of Commerce co-sponsored the mural and time capsule alongside the Granville Historical Society, which will house it for the next 99 years. Two granite tiles commemorating the capsule will be on display, one inside and one outside the building.
Brian Edwards, who serves as managing director of The Edwards Group at Morgan Stanley, came up with the initial idea for 43023 Day in Granville. The Kenyon graduate got an email from his alma mater on 4/30/22, in coordination with Gambier’s zip code, asking for a donation.
“It’s nice to be part of something,” Edwards said. “Part of history and part of time.”
“We got the idea [to celebrate Granville], so instead of writing a check for Kenyon 43022, I wrote a check to the Chamber of Commerce for 43023,” he added.
His idea led to a once-in-a-century celebration last year, and hopefully, a tradition of once-in-a-century celebrations to follow.
The official sealing of the capsule took place a year after the initial event, on Tuesday, April 30, 2024 at the Historical Society.
“In Granville, we treasure our history. We treasure the people that came before us. We treasure our architecture, all of the different experiences that people have had,” Granville Mayor Melissa Hartfield said. “And I hope whenever they pull that [time capsule] out, that the people that are living here, or wherever, still feel the same that they do today about the treasure that we live in.”
Emmet Anderson writes for TheReportingProject.org, the nonprofit news organization of Denison University’s Journalism program, which is sponsored in part by the Mellon Foundation and donations from readers. Sign up for The Reporting Project newsletter here.