100 years ago, 1916
The new Prescott Memorial building at Good Will Farm in New Gloucester is nearly completed and will be dedicated some time in November. The building will have a fine auditorium with a seating capacity of about 750, an asbestos moving picture booth, and a great electrical, three manual organ, built by the same company that manufactured the organ in Portland city hall. This building is the administration building as well, however, and will also have beneath its roof administrative offices, reception rooms, a general store for all kinds of supplies from flour to lead pencils and stationery, while in the basement is located, at some distance apart, a bakery and a barber shop. On the top floor will be a dental office, where Good Will boys may have their teeth treated, filled or extracted as necessity may warrant.

50 years ago, 1966
A roaring, uncontrollable fire defied the combined efforts of firemen from Mechanic Falls, Auburn and the Poland Spring Job Corps Center, Saturday night, destroying a large 12-room farm house and barn in Poland. The blaze, which leveled the William Curtis residence at the White Oak Hill and Strout Roads, was visible for miles around from its source near the summit of White Oak Hill, with Auburn firemen reporting it visible on Minot Avenue while they were on route to the scene, and others reporting it had been seen from Oxford.

25 years ago, 1991
It’s a little early for Christmas, but the town of Minot isn’t complaining. Tuesday afternoon Auburn City Councilors agreed to a proposal by Fire Chief Clifton Smith to give neighboring Minot a fire truck. “The Minot Fire Department is the one we call when we need mutual aid,” Smith said. “They respond to Auburn more than Auburn responds to Minot. They’ve assisted in building the training station, and I think it’s time to pay them back.” The truck was purchased by the city in 1963 as a front-line piece of equipment, Smith noted. It boasts a 500-gallon water tank and a 750-gallon per-minute pump.

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