100 years ago, 1917
Lewiston City Hall, attractively decorated, was the scene of the annual Firemen’s ball, last evening. Officially it was the nineteenth annual entertainment and ball under the auspices of the Lewiston Firemen’s Relief Association, but to its patrons it will always be the Firemen’s Ball.

50 years ago, 1967
Lewiston Mayor William Rocheleau Jr. issued a statement considerably watered down in tone from his inaugural criticism of the police department after a 25 minute meeting behind closed doors with the Police Commission last night. Members of the commission said they had no intentions of asking for the chief’s resignation. There had been rumors this might happen. Rocheleau didn’t ask for the chief’s resignation. Chief Joseph H. Farrand, who irked the mayor last week by denying there’s a morale problem in the department or that the public lacks confidence in the department, stuck to his guns.

25 years ago, 1992
A major grant has been awarded to the Bates Dance Festival for an innovative collaborative project with L/A Arts that will serve to celebrate the rich heritage of Maine’s largest ethnic group, the Franco-American population. The Association of Performing Arts Presenters has selected the Bates College summer dance festival, now preparing to celebrate its 10th anniversary season, to receive $124,500 as part of the prestigious Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Arts Partners Program to co-host with L/A Arts a multifaceted commissioning and residency project featuring Doug Varone & Dancers, a highly acclaimed New York-based modern dance ensemble, during the summer and fall of 1992. The project will culminate in early October with the premiere performance of a dance work by the Varone Company. To reinforce the industrial theme as well as celebrate Lewiston-Auburn’s history as a vital manufacturing center, the intended performance site is an abandoned factory or similar environment.

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