By: Star Traylor, The Warren Sentinel
FRONT ROYAL – Leslie Sealock was about 8 years old when the cornerstone was set for the Town Hall on Main Street in Front Royal.
He wasn’t planning to attend the Aug. 17, 1935, ceremony, but to spend the day playing with his friend instead of going to summer school classes with his tutor. When his father discovered the boys’ plans, he picked up young Leslie, who accompanied his father and his father’s coworker Alvin Berryman to the private ceremony where the cornerstone was set by the local Masonic Lodge.
The significance of the event didn’t excite the boy.
“I wasn’t interested in it whatsoever. I wanted to get back out and go to the creek,” he said.
But even though Sealock wasn’t terribly fascinated by the events he witnessed at the site of the former Town Hall, he does remember watching local dignitaries prepare a time capsule to go inside the cornerstone.
“I remember they had they box, but it was a shiny copper box,” Sealock recalled.
The contents of the papers included in the time capsule were revealed Saturday during a ceremony that was part of the town’s 225th anniversary celebration. Front Royal Mayor Timothy Darr, members of the Town Council, Masonic Unity Lodge No. 146 and representatives of the Warren Heritage Society attended along with a crowd of about 50 people.
Thirty-nine separate documents were enclosed in the cornerstone, including a history of Warren County and the town’s founding, the papers of the Warren County Garden Club, the officers and committees of the Warren County Education Association, a bulletin published by the Chamber of Commerce titled “Front Royal, Va., Northern Gateway to the Shenandoah National Park,” a list of the officers and committees of the Front Royal Rotary Club, a copy of The Warren Sentinel from Aug. 15, 1935, and The Northern Virginia Daily from Aug. 17, 1935, pictures of the Town Council and Planning Commission and a list of town employees.
The time capsule was presented Saturday to representatives of the Warren Heritage Society. The box will be opened during a ceremony at 6:30 p.m. Aug. 30 at the Heritage Society office, 101 Chester St.
Representing Masonic Unity Lodge No. 146, Dennis Haas conducted the cornerstone replacement ceremony, pouring corn, wine and oil over the stone. The three elements represented nourishment, refreshment, joy, gladness, peace and harmony, he said.
Tom Strickler, who attended the ceremony on Saturday, moved to Front Royal in 1936, a year after the cornerstone was set.
“I was 11 years old. The town had 2,800 people when I moved here. There were no traffic lights and one policeman. Skyline Drive hadn’t been opened yet and Route 340 to Luray did not exist. Things have changed,” Strickler said. “My dad had a restaurant up on Main Street for a number of years. Hamburgers were a dime and hotdogs were a nickel. You could get a hot dog and coke for 10 cents.”
Sealock agreed that things have changed in town since he was young. He worked as a paperboy from about age 11 to 15, then met his future wife Anna Athey at the Mayflower Restaurant on Royal Avenue.
“We were both 17 when we got married,” he recalled. “Ms. Morton, she was a school teacher and she said it wouldn’t work. We’ve been married 69 years now.”
One of the biggest changes in Front Royal since the 1930s is how much it has grown, Sealock said.
“I knew everybody in town by first name,” Sealock said. “I was at the fair this year with my grandson. There were a few hundred people there and I only saw one person that I know. I couldn’t believe it.”
Unity Lodge No. 146 
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