SAUGUS — Town officials, residents, and Saugus High School alumni gathered at the Town Hall’s auditorium to open the time capsule buried by students in 1954, which featured a letter from then-President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

It was a group effort to open the time capsule, as town officials and alumni from the high school’s Classes of 1954 and 1955 worked to loosen the bolts on it, eventually switching to a drill with a socket attachment to expedite the process.

As the lid was removed from the box, the audience applauded.

With hands in white cloth gloves, Town Manager Scott Crabtree carefully began grabbing items from the capsule, as those in the audience waited with bated breath.

“It’s amazing,” Crabtree said. “You look at whatever happened when they did the ceremony, and they bring a whole community together, and they pick and choose different items they think that we would want to see, of what’s important and of their interest at that time, a snapshot in time.”

Items in the box were of typical time-capsule fare, with newspapers, stamps, and town artifacts and documents from the 1950s among its contents.

As Crabtree continued to pull items from the capsule, the room fell into a buzz of whispers, as audience members recalled the times of old.

Notably, Eisenhower’s letter elicited a big reaction from the audience.

“I am delighted to learn of the 325th anniversary of your town and to send you my warmest congratulations and my best wishes for a very successful celebration,” Eisenhower wrote in the letter. “It is particularly interesting and gratifying to observe that in connection with this anniversary, your citizens are celebrating also the founding of the first American iron works and the dedication of a new high-school building. Both of these are symbolic of the growth of America. Industry has helped to make America great, and the education of our people has given assurance that the nation’s progress would be intelligently and reasonably directed. I wish for all of you a most prosperous and happy future.”

Superintendent Michael Hashem said it was amazing how detailed and thorough the time capsule’s contents were.

He said that there is definitely interest in creating a new time capsule, but wondered if the objects in a capsule from today would have the same “awe factor.”

“It wouldn’t be as awesome to see a flash drive,” Hashem said.

Crabtree said the town has been planning a new time capsule and has considered reusing the same capsule as the one from 1954. He said the town plans to check if it would be feasible to do so.

“If you go back at the historical first town report, and when they went to a town-manager form of government — it’s at the library — in 1948, it’s interesting because the same issues, similar issues, are in that report that are similar issues to what we’re dealing with today,” he said. “History repeats itself, sometimes.”

According to a pamphlet provided at the opening, the town’s next time-capsule opening will be in 2115, as residents buried a time capsule commemorating the 200th anniversary of the town in 2015.