100 years ago, 1913
Mrs. Della Rainey of Maidstone, Vt., has been elected matron of the Children’s Home, Lewiston, and will come here the middle of August to get the house in readiness for reopening the first of September. According to the yearly custom, the Children’s Home will be closed through July and August and necessary repairs will be made to the interior of the house and it will be thoroughly cleaned preparatory to entering upon the fall work. Five of the boys are at Opportunity Farm for the summer, several have been placed in homes, and one or two have been invited by private families to visit them for the vacation.

50 years ago, 1963
Auburn police received a number of complaints last night that the apparatus operating a refrigerated railroad car was keeping awake residents near the Spring Street section. The car was on the siding on Railroad Street near Food Town and the apparatus had been kept operating because of the perishable nature of the cargo. Authorities contacted the railroad in an effort to have something done and efforts were under way along this line. With doors and windows of homes open to get what cooling air there was circulating through homes which had been sun-baked during the day, the noise was freely admitted.

25 years ago, 1988
The State Planning Office recently has made available a list of rare and endangered species which includes 19 from Androscoggin County. The only rare plant on the list from the Lewiston-Auburn area is the awlwort, considered a “special concern” plant, which means the plant “could become threatened in the foreseeable future.” The aquatic plant was discovered at Lake Auburn in 1925, and grows on sand and gravel in ponds and slow streams. There have been five to ten occurrences of the plant within the past 20 years.