100 years ago, 1909

A number of members of the Lake Auburn Boat Club spent yesterday at the lake working on the new club house. The building is progressing rapidly and will be one of the largest buildings of the kind on the lake. It is situated near the Conant cottage and has a fine location, being near the grove and easy to reach from the road above the outlet.

50 years ago, 1959

The Edward Little High School debating team, Maine champions, were eliminated in the fifth round of the National Forensic League debating championships held recently at the University of Miami. Edward Little defeated South Dakota and Ohio and then was defeated by Kansas and Colorado. This was the third ELHS debating team to represent Maine in the national finals since the tournaments were started in 1931. Some 375 high school boys and girls participated in the national finals.

25 years ago, 1984

BEVERLY, MASS. — An arsonist apparently set two fires in a rooming house that quickly turned the building into an inferno and killed 14 of its residents on Independence Day, a state official said Thursday. Among the victims were three members of one family. Hattie M. Whary, 73, formerly of Auburn. ME, who managed the rooming house, and two of her grandsons, Richard Nickerson, 21, of Beverly, and Ralph Nickerson, 10, of Snow Ave., Auburn, ME. Officials said 36 people were in the building when the fire erupted and quickly engulfed the three-story structure at about 4 a.m.