100 years ago, 1917
Lewiston Mayor Charles P. Lemaire will fight the police commission and the paying of salaries until the court decides whether or not the commission is legal. The following letter was sent by the Lewiston mayor to George H. Hale, Esq., Lewiston City Treasurer, on May 19, 1917: Dear Sir: You are hereby forbidden to pay any salary or salaries to any police officers serving as chief, captains, inspectors and regular patrolmen, or police officers and police matron acting under any capacity whatsoever, appointed by the so-called Police Commission acting as a commission of police by the State Legislature. Should you pay any members acting under the order of said commission you do so at your own peril.

50 years ago, 1967
Adoption of the new Auburn city charter was urged last night by the Auburn city officials and two of four members of Auburn’s Legislative delegation. The charter proposal, which was signed earlier in the day by Gov. Kenneth M. Curtis, was endorsed by Mayor Harry W. Woodard Jr., and three of four members of the City Council who could be contacted. The proposal now goes to a referendum in September.

25 years ago, 1992
One hundred years ago today, thousands of city residents filled the Lewiston City Building to celebrate its dedication, two years after the city’s “fiercest fire” destroyed the previous city hall. “It Is Finished,” announced the Lewiston Evening Journal in recounting the events of May 19, 1892. “The Keys of the New City Building hall Turned Over to the Mayor.” The celebration, marked by “a throng the building could not accommodate,” according to a reporter, saw “hundreds (trooping) through the building (who) could not gain admission to the hall. Even the speakers had to fight their way to the stage and if it had not been for the courteous and continued assistance of the city marshal in critical cases some of the speakers would not have reached the stage at all. At 8 o’clock it is probable that nearly five thousand people were in the building.”

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