100 years ago, 1912
Darling Automobile Company opened in its new store in the Lenox building, Auburn, at 2 o’clock Tuesday afternoon, and from far and near are coming visitors to this affair. The new store is made all the more beautiful with decorations or ferns and pinks. Ralph Coburn, manager of the salesrooms of the United Motor Company of Boston, made the trip from Massachusetts in a “Maxwell Special” and the car is on exhibit in the rooms. The Reo chassis is on exhibition and is creating considerable interest among local autoists.  

50 years ago, 1962
Power shovels are digging deep into the earth on the Bates College campus, removing sand and rock from the site of the new maintenance center, now under construction, where the heating plant built in 1919 has long stood. The new structure will house three boilers for complete heating of the campus buildings; storage and office space for the maintenance personnel; various shops; and garage facilities. The smokestack, pre-World War I, is 110 feet high. It will continue to overlook the growing campus.

25 years ago, 1987
Gaining confidence and gaining practical experience are the goals of a four-day military style training course for skin divers being offered by the Maine School of Oceanography. Donald J. Bernard, president of the nonprofit school on Turner Road that he founded in 1972, said the four days are meant to be “a learning experience” for the participants in such activities as diving from a boat, swimming against the water current, night diving and intelligence gathering. The dives will take place weekends in July and August. Except for the first one, the locations are either a secret or still to be determined. The first dive will be off the coast  of Pemaquid, next to the Colonial-era Fort William Henry. Six divers at a time will be required to locate the wreck of a fishing boat using a compass, while another six divers will go an on underwater scavenger hunt. Then the teams will switch activities.