100 years ago, 1915
The regular meeting of the Lewiston and Auburn Gardeners’ Union was held Friday evening in the public rooms of the Shoe and Leather bank with an excellent attendance. The speaker of the evening was Dr. George M. Twitchell of Auburn and he took gardening for his subject. As might be expected the theme was ably handled and for more than an hour he held the close attention of his audience. Willard A. Noyes reported on premiums for the next fair.

50 years ago, 1965
Members of the Holy Family grammar school hockey team this morning were honored by their fellow classmates, at a rally held in the school hall, Participating were students from the fifth through eighth grades. The young pucksters captured the senior division championship yesterday afternoon defeating St. Peter’s by a 5-1 margin. This morning, words of congratulation and welcome were delivered by Sr. Rita Marie, principal of the school and Rev. Real Nadeau, athletic director.

25 years ago, 1990
Auburn City councilors tonight will hear a request to issue about $700,000 in bonds to pay for road improvements near Turner Street and Mount Auburn Avenue from the developers of an $18.8 million shopping center. Center Street Associates, the partnership of developers involved in the Auburn Plaza project, will ask the city to issue the bonds as part of a tax increment financing (TIF) plan that will use higher taxes from the shopping center to repay the debt. The financing system has been used in the past for a Kittyhawk Avenue business park. But the strategy has also been a point of controversy and became a campaign issue in last year’s municipal elections. Tax increment financing works by using higher property taxes levied on a developer’s project to repay a municipal bond issue for public works projects made necessary by that development.

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