100 years ago, 1915
Dry days in Lewiston are coming. The city is to have one of its periodic fits of rectitude, and the people are going to church. This was the little ripple which appeared on the hitherto calm and benign surface of the booze situation, Friday. Rumors that Lewiston was to open “from bridge to bridge” before the Christmas holidays were widespread, Thursday night, but the hint that Ed Emery, the Civic League man that closed up Brunswick, was on his way to Lewiston, coupled with reports from other sources, put a new slant to the gossip.

50 years ago, 1965
The Androscoggin County jail is “above average” from every, standpoint and it reflects “progressive planning” on the part of the Sheriff and the County Commissioners. So says the bi-yearly jail report, compiled by State authorities and released today by Chief Deputy Rosaire Martel. The report was a favorable one all along the line and it pointed out that the addition to the county building, part of which will be utilized by the Sheriff’s Department, will be of a great asset to the jail property.

25 years ago, 1990
A group of angry Little Canada residents in Lewiston called for faster and more effective action from the city when it comes to demolishing abandoned buildings in that neighborhood Tuesday night in a discussion prompted by last weekend’s fire on Oxford Street. “How long are our family members going to be held hostage to the red tape of this city?” asked Tom D. Collins, who said his 90-year-old grandmother lives at 3 River St., next door to one of the vacant tenements in the area. “There is a need for more room for children to play, for fire trucks to get in. There is no parking in the area. These buildings are vacant, so there is no need for them.” Many of the tenements in the densely-built neighborhood are only inches away from the adjacent buildings, and residents say the conditions have them in fear of fires started in the vacant buildings by transients.

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