100 years ago, 1913

Five minutes after the New Gloucester selectmen had adjourned a meeting they had been holding Wednesday afternoon, lightning struck the town building and literally tore it to pieces. Windows were ripped from the casements, doors unhinged and clapboards torn off and blown hundreds of feet. A chair in which one of the members had been sitting was split in two. Several fires were started but extinguished before much damage had been done. Every telephone line in town was put out of commission and communication out of town was not obtained until late in the evening.

50 years ago, 1963

The University of Maine is setting up a temporary bookstore in Lewiston to provide necessary books for University of Maine students in Lewiston-Auburn. A vacant store at 30 Ash St., Lewiston, is being taken over by the University’s Continued Education Division for two days, Assistant Director Arnold G. Westerberg announced today. Registrants for the University of Maine at Lewiston and Auburn courses may obtain needed books on Friday, Sept. 10, and Saturday, Sept. 11. In other years, students obtained books by mail from the Portland or Orono campuses.

25 years ago, 1988

A deeply wooded 220-acre parcel on hills overlooking Worthley Pond is the probable site of the Samantha Smith Worldpeace Teen Camp. Jane Smith, who heads the nonprofit Samantha Smith Center founded in memory of her daughter, and Jay Stager of the Sunshine Partnership, which owns the Poland Spring site, say negotiations are continuing on an arrangement whereby the center and Sunshine Partnership will jointly operate the new project. It is expected to open next year. Samantha Smith, a Manchester schoolgirl, gained worldwide fame when she made a trip to the Soviet Union as an unofficial envoy. She and her father, Arthur, died in an August 1985 plane crash in Auburn.