ASTORIA — Officials at Mount Sinai Queens plan to bury a time capsule at the hospital's future facility on 30th Avenue, and are asking the neighborhood for suggestions on what should go inside.
The time capsule will be placed inside a cornerstone of the new six-story building that's being constructed behind the current Mount Sinai Queens site on 30th Avenue and Crescent Street, part of a $150 million expansion of the hospital that's set to wrap up this summer.
A committee will vote on the items to go in the time capsule, and the hospital is currently asking the public to submit their ideas, according to spokeswoman Shelly Felder.
"We really want a combination, of the people who work at Mount Sinai Queens and the residents of the neighborhood, to have a hand in this," she said.
The time capsule was inspired by another one in the hospital's past: when the facility first opened as Astoria Hospital in 1895, officials placed a number of trinkets inside a cornerstone of the building, including a Bible, a silver dollar and a newspaper, according an archived New York Times story published at the time.
When that building was torn down in 2013 to make way for the expansion, Mount Sinai crews opened the cornerstone and found the Bible was still inside, according to Felder.
Now the hospital wants to leave a similar peek to the past inside its newest building. People can send in their ideas for the time capsule by tweeting with the hashtag #MSQTimeCapsule, or emailing MSQCommunications@mountsinai.org.
So far, Felder said they've gotten several requests to include the newest iPhone in the capsule.
"We want some other things that the community is going to find meaningful," she said. "That's the part that's missing so far."
Mount Sinai Queens broke ground on its expansion in 2013. It's expected to include an expanded emergency department, new operating rooms, additional laboratory services and a multi-specialty medical outpatient practice, officials said.
