Several weeks ago, I read with interest of your upcoming “Gems of L-A” and unfortunately didn’t clip the article right away.

However, through the following days, my thoughts generated the many sights – buildings, the lake, the river, schools, architectural beauties and overall past memories or “gems” – that are my positive thoughts of L-A.

As a native Lewistonian, my early recollections are connected to the “sights” as seen from the neighborhood in which I grew up, “Apple Sass Hill”

As youngsters, my brothers and I often romped through the nature-filled wonders of the Stanton Bird Club Sanctuary, called Apple Sass Hill Sanctuary, as engraved on a large marker atop the present Pleasant Street hill.

Developed hundreds of years earlier by settlers of the Davis Family, it held stone walls, gnarled old grape vines, various trees and trails that led to the most breathtaking panoramic view of the city of Lewiston, lying in the valley near the Androscoggin River and overshadowed by looming Bates Mill smokestacks.

On the left and right was the green hillside of New Auburn, with the hills of Western Maine beyond. Treasured memories still hold when the summit of Mount Washington was seen in all its majestic glory.

Recently, I drove up Pleasant Street to the hilltop, which still presents a commanding view. There before me were the silent spires of Saints Peter and Paul Basilica, St. Patrick Church and the Lewiston city building. That view is a real “gem of L-A.”

Patricia Sutton Stuart, Sabattus