100 years ago, 1916
The Auburn police are determined that violations of the traffic laws shall and must be stopped, and to gain that end, Wednesday, several teams and autos were stopped and warned that they must comply with the law. The rule regarding the stopping ten feet in the rear of electric cars taking on or discharging passengers has been broken repeatedly, and the department is putting forth every effort to catch offenders. Regarding the excessive speed with which vehicles, especially automobiles, are driven, this also will receive the strictest attention from the department. The revised statutes of Maine say: “Speed must at all times be reasonable and safe, having regard to the traffic and use of road by others, and in the thickly settled portion of a town or city where the traffic obstructs the operator’s view of intersecting ways, crossings or corners, a speed exceeding eight (8) miles per hour is prima facie evidence of a speed that is greater than is reasonable or safe.”

50 years ago, 1966
It won’t be long before the ice is out of Lake Auburn if the weather remains warm and windy, according to Verne Tame of the Auburn Water District pumping station operator there. Tame said that the ice should be out in another day or two if the weather is warm and the wind, which is a prime factor, continues. The ice usually goes out around the middle of April and last year went out April 22.

25 years ago, 1991
When a city-hung banner in Lewiston tore out in a windstorm last week, tumbling bricks onto a Lisbon Street sidewalk, it focused attention on the problem posed when an historic building is damaged. “Fortunately, most of the damage was just to the brick facade, not to the ornamental work,” said Tom Theberge, owner of the Mansfield Building at 234 Lisbon St. “Parts of two window arches were lost, but they weren’t all that elaborate. If the carved stone lintels had been damaged, we’d be looking at a much bigger headache.”

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