NWI.Com The Times

September 27, 2014 12:00 am • Gregory Tejeda Times Correspondent

BEECHER | Students of the University of Illinois architecture school will be in the village today to document the character of the Beecher Mausoleum as part of a class project. Associate professor Paul Kapp is bringing his Recording Historic Buildings class of senior undergraduates and graduate students to the mausoleum, which in recent months has been undergoing a restoration by the Beecher Guardian Angel Association. Kapp said in a letter to the association the students will measure the structure, while also producing architectural drawings, plans, elevations, sections and details of the mausoleum, which is in its centennial year of existence. It is a Will County historic landmark and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The students’ work ultimately will be submitted for the Peterson Prize competition sponsored by the National Parks Service. The class also intends to present copies of their work to the association, which says the original drawings of the structure were lost years ago. Association President Sandra Thielman said officials there hope the students’ work can help them discover the exact location of a time capsule that supposedly is inside the building. Thielman said accounts published in the Beecher Herald newspaper in 1913 make reference to a historical vault.

That vault supposedly contains newspapers from the period when the mausoleum was built, along with a published history of Beecher and Washington townships in Will County, and other relics including arrows once belonging to Native American tribes from the area.

Oklahoma-time-capsule 1913 Oklahoma City Time Capsule 1913