100 years ago, 1915
“I read with interest the recent item concerning the 28th birthday of Mrs. Norton of Farmington,” said a Lewiston woman, Friday. “It was Mrs. Norton’s grandfather who built the first schoolhouse in Lewiston. It stood near the location of the present residence of Fred H. White, Main Street. For erecting the building, he was given $160 and for teaching school $160 a year. His family was the sixteenth family to settle in Lewiston. Mrs. Norton is the mother of Mrs. George P. French of Portland, who is so well known in Lewiston and Auburn.

50 years ago, 1965
Traffic in Auburn was extremely heavy on two separate occasions, Friday, with the result that it was necessary to take a patrolman off cruiser car duty and put him to work attempting to get cars moving into Lewiston. Auburn police said the traffic peak came about 4 p.m. and 7:30 p m., with the latter jam backing up into Auburn from Lewiston. Auburn’s trouble spots were at Court Street and Turner Street. On Court Street traffic over the bridge into Lewiston was at a standstill about 7:30 p.m. Police said the back-up apparently was caused by traffic in Lewiston headed for the fairgrounds, with some of the traffic in Auburn being created by vehicles leaving the new Shaw’s supermarket on Center Street and traveling down Turner Street to Court Street.

25 years ago, 1990
The Auburn School Committee agreed on Wednesday to look at different options, including starting classes earlier at Edward Little High School and altering the transportation policy to alleviate busing problems which have caused long delays and bus rides for some students. Since classes started over two weeks ago, the committee and Transportation Director Joanne Hill have received complaints from parents that children are on the bus too long or have to walk too far to get to a bus stop.

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