100 years ago, 1917
The Petit Journal, one of Lewiston’s French papers, printed on Sunday a sensational story in which it charged that “Le Petit Canada,” the great district comprising River, Oxford and Cedar streets, south of St. Mary’s Church, and inhabited largely by Franco-Canadians, is the most dangerous, so far as the fire hazard is concerned. Responsibility is placed upon the municipal government. The charge of unseemliness was promptly and emphatically denied by Street Commissioner Roy, who said that this section of the city receives quite as much attention from his department as does any other.

50 years ago, 1967
Many of Lewiston’s streets were in darkness for a few minutes early this morning as a power surge in the Central Maine Power Co. system caused city-owned transformers to be disconnected, as a precautionary measure. Affected were all Lewiston street lights whose power is provided by Public Works transformers. The power failure, which lasted about 15 minutes, occurred at about 3:30 a.m. When the lights went on again, Lewiston Police found nine benches in Kennedy Park had been pulled up and damaged. Earlier, around 2:45 a.m., police received a report that a group of teenagers was involved in a scuffle on the corner of Spruce and Bates Streets. Police arrived at the scene and broke up the five boys and two girls involved. Authorities said they believed the youngsters were also responsible for the damaged park benches.

25 years ago, 1992
Lightning blew out transformers and splintered trees in Lewiston and Auburn as an afternoon thunderstorm ripped through the area Thursday. The storm was one of several with moderate winds, heavy rain and frequent lightning that sped throughout the southwestern part of the state at about 45 mph, according to the National Weather Service. The worst storms were concentrated in the Portland and Sebago Lake areas, as well as Lewiston, Brunswick, Knox County and Rockland. Lightning caused scattered power failures.

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