100 years ago, 1917
The building on Lisbon street, Lewiston, formerly occupied by the Lewiston Morning News, has been leased by the Shepherd Moving Picture Company for the opening of a theatre. About $2000 will be spent on the interior. Opera chairs will be put into the building and the best kind of pictures will be shown. It is to be called “The Bijou.” It will be a “nickel” show after the style of these houses in other cities. The Shepherd firm runs about 30 of these theatres thruout the country. Work will begin at once and the house made ready for spring and summer.

50 years ago, 1967
(Photo Caption) That little concrete blockhouse and cable car across the Androscoggin River off Route 136, Auburn, serves an important role in the data-gathering of the Water Resources Division of the U.S. Geological Survey. Here, Gordon Keezer of Augusta climbs the tower to the cable car. The next picture shows the finned instrument he lowers from the cable car into the water to measure the water’s flow, and in the center photo, he reels equipment down toward a hole in the ice. Keezer uses snowshoes to reach many of the gauging stations, although this one is just off the highway on the way to Durham. Inside the blockhouse, Keezer demonstrates the tape-puncher which gives a constant check of the river’s level through a well driven under the house.

25 years ago, 1992
After a three-and-one-half month shutdown for asbestos abatement, Western Avenue School in Auburn reopened Tuesday morning with 2,000 square yards of new carpeting underfoot and “welcome back” banners on the walls. “We feel like this is our third first day of school,” teacher Idella Harter said with a smile during early morning playground duty. “They did a good job with this. They split our year into three almost equal parts, with about 12 weeks each here, then at the churches, and now back here.” The collapse of a janitor’s closet ceiling Nov. 13 led to the detection of airborne asbestos particles in the K-3 school. The building, which is leased from Sacred Heart Parish, closed a week later.

The material in Looking Back is reproduced exactly as it originally appeared, although misspellings and errors made at that time may be edited.