100 Years Ago: 1922

Arab Patrol Drum Corps, Mystic Shrine will make its first public appearance at the Maine State Fair ceremonial next week resplendent in their new uniforms of scarlet and yellow.

50 Years Ago: 1972

(Sun Jornal photo) Please Mr. Motorists, watch out for us! That’s the plea of these youngsters and the many other Twin City students preparing to return to the classrooms next week. The above young ones are Jimmy and Tina Keene, children of Sgt. and Mrs. Richard Keene of the Auburn Police Department. They will be attending the C. P, Wight School at North Auburn. Sgt. Keene and his maintenance staff are currently in the process of preparing and erecting warning signs like the above which will be placed near schools throughout the city.

25 Years Ago: 1997

Elliott Epstein wants to build a museum, but he’s got just a few hurdles to get over first. He has no money, no staff and nowhere to put it.

But that’s not stopping Epstein who, along with Mac McPeake and a group of others, in spearheading an effort to establish a museum in the twin Cities devoted to the industrial history of the region.

Epstein’s vision of the museum is far removed from the traditional, stuffy image that most people associate with museums. “We want the museum to be interactive,” Epstein said, “with working machinery demonstrated by people who used to work in the mills. We want to have working models of the dam and canal system and a 3-D scale model of Lewiston at the end of last century. You’ll see a tangible chronicle of the history of this area and how it developed.”

Epstein, who lives in Auburn, said he has always been fascinated with the Industrial Revolution. When he found out about the museum project, he decided he should get involved. His vision involves 10,000 to 16,000 square feet of space and, once up and running, would receive as many as 25,000 to 50,000 visitors each year, many of them schoolchildren.

Before Epstein’s vision can be realized, though, some serious work must be done. Epstein admits that the road ahead is a long and difficult one, but he is confident Lewiston will be the home of a new museum.

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