DEAR SUN SPOTS: Because of COVID, the Lewiston Armory has been closed to senior citizens but has now reopened for bridge on Tuesday mornings at 9 a.m. We would like to make everyone aware of this so they can participate if they are interested. All bridge players are welcome and a partner is guaranteed. All levels of players will be there. We like to have fun playing a challenging game. Coffee will be served.

I believe other senior activities are also starting up including cribbage, bingo and mahjong.

Thank you for your help in letting citizens know about these activities. — Pat, Otisfield

ANSWER: This sounds like a fun time and a way to help get through the long winter ahead.

DEAR SUN SPOTS: Regarding the question in the Oct. 28 Sun Spots, here is a link for answers about Mount David vs. Davis Mountain, commonly known in Lewiston by either name: https://www.bates.edu/news/2015/12/18/whats-in-a-bates-name-david/ — No name, no town

ANSWER: For those readers who can’t open the link above or don’t have computer access, following is 99% of the information from that article in the Bates College newsletter:

Mount David rises 381 feet above sea level. The peak is also known as Mount Davis, Davis Mountain and David’s Mountain, and is named after David Davis, who was born Sept. 1, 1775, and died Jan. 5, 1851.

David’s father, Amos Davis, was Lewiston’s third settler. A Quaker, Amos was a farmer, shoemaker and surveyor who drew one of the earliest maps of the area dated 1776. His son David was the second male born in Lewiston.

In 1803, David Davis paid $5 for 100 acres that included the mountain. He named it for himself, according to some accounts. He farmed the land until his death in 1851. His heirs bequeathed the mountain to Bates, which hoped to build an observatory on its summit.

The original David Davis home on Main Street in Lewiston was the oldest building in the city, and one of the most run-down, when it was torn down in 1989.

Davis, Frye and White streets near campus are all named for the same family.

At the opening of the new Maine State Seminary on Sept. 1, 1857, a local pastor said that if David Davis were present, he would tell the new students to “go up that mountain, where you will obtain a view of our united villages. Make your principles as firm as the granite base on which the mountain rests.”

The mountain lends its name to the college’s leadership giving group, the Mount David Society, and the college’s annual academic showcase, the Mount David Summit.

Many of David Davis’ direct descendants are Bates alumni, the youngest being his great-great-great-great-great-grandson, Toby White ’94, an associate professor at, of all places, the University of California at Davis School of Education.

Toby’s great-grandmother was Marion Wellman White, who, according to family history, attended Bates for a year but was expelled for the sin of skating on the campus bog (named Lake Andrews years later) on a Sunday morning.

David Davis is buried near campus in the Davis family cemetery on the corner of Sabattus and Franklin streets.

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