100 Years Ago: 1922

The J.B. St. Pierre store at Lisbon and Chestnut streets is now occupying the entire corner of the block, including the section off city hall alley which was formerly occupied by a barber shop, and was remodeled recently to suit the furnishing store’s needs The store is now one of the largest in point of space in the city.

50 Years Ago: 1972

Members of the Lewiston-Auburn Railroad Company yesterday elected directors and officers for the coming year and empowered the president to sign easements in connection with the new sewer interceptor system installation. Elected as directors were Auburn Mayor John Linnell, who was later elected president; Auburn councilmen, William Skelton II and Raymond Belanger; Lewiston Mayor Robert Clifford; and Lewiston Aldermen Charles Lemay, George Call, Ernest Pleau, George Ricker and Lillian Caron. Eugene St. Pierre was reelected treasurer and Auburn City Clerk Leroy Linnell was named clerk. Generally, the presidency of the company is jointly owned by the two city mayors and the office of clerks alternate between the two city clerks. City Engineer Harland Hatch explained with the new interceptor system going in easements from the railroad would be needed on the Lewiston side of the railroad bridge and on Beach Street near the railroad station.

25 Years Ago: 1997

Bruce Dunham looks out across the thin sheen of ice that covers the small man-made pond next to his home on Mount Blue Road in Avon. On a warm spring morning, the ice is so thin it’s easy to make out the narrow dark shapes that move listlessly about near the pond’s shallow bottom. “The secret is the water,” Dunham says as an 18-inch rainbow trout brushes its nose against the surface of the ice before returning to the floor of the pond. “People tell me I ought to just get rid of the fish and sell the water. That’s how pure it is.” The water that bubbles up from the artesian well below Dunham’s house provides the fish in his pond with warm, oxygen-rich water all year round. It’s also the foundation for his new business, Dunham’s Purewater Hatchery. The nearly 3,000 rainbow trout in his tiny man-made pond are only a showcase for the hatchery Dunham operates in the converted horse barn adjacent to his house. Where hay used to be stored for a handful of horses, somewhere between 40,000 and 60,000 young rainbow trout swim. “It started out as kind of a hobby,” Dunham said, “but it looks like it’s going to go commercial.”

The material used in Looking Back is produced exactly as it originally appeared although misspellings and errors may be corrected.