Bostonians may not immediately recognize the refurbished gold lion and silver unicorn statues when they return to the top of the Old State House on Sunday morning. Their restored coats will be just that sparklingly different.
“They are super shiny,” Heather Leet, the Bostonian Society’s director of development, said. “It’s a huge change from what they looked like.”
The unicorn, in particular, will be noticeably different with its new palladium cover. When the statues were taken down from the Old State House in September, the unicorn had turned a bland shade of greenish-gray. The refurbishments from Skylight Studios have turned the unicorn “really, really silver” and “spectacular,” Leet said. Bostonian Society president Brian LeMay encouraged those hoping to see the new statues to wear sunglasses.
On Sunday at 10 a.m., the statues will be trucked to the Old State House in covered crates, and will then be unveiled to onlookers. The unicorn will be lifted by crane to its spot first, followed by the lion, Leet said.
The lion, which previously held a 1901 time capsule, will have a new time capsule inside it returns to its perch.
We previously covered a number of the quintessentially Boston items being placed in the new time capsule, including a Boston Marathon medal, Red Sox tickets, letters from local journalists (including Boston.com’s Brian Burns), and photos of Boston political leaders. Those items were all carefully placed into the air-tight and water-tight copper time capsule, covered in acid-free folders and paper to protect them from the elements.
In addition to those items, the time capsule will include a menu from Legal Sea Foods so that the future can see the cost of food and what people ate.
A cannoli-less cardboard box from Mike’s Pastry will be included, too. For obvious reasons, the Bostonian Society decided against putting perishable cannoli — no matter how delicious — inside the copper box. One hundred years from now, a hungry time capsule opener will just have to be disappointed.
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