100 years ago: 1925

The Legislature’s Judiciary Committee favored a bill that would prohibit advertising signs along Maine’s highways. The House accepted its majority report.

“Last fall at the teacher’s convention, John Parlin, the well-known naturalist and principal of Freedom Academy, announced the finding of a blue spotted salamander. Now, (six months later) beneath a granite boulder in Buckfield, he found ‘my best lichen, physcia mollis. In appearance, it resembles silver filigree work and adheres so closely to the rock that only very careful work immediately after a rain enabled me to obtain any specimens. That was the first time that it has ever been found in Maine.’”

50 years ago: 1975

M.B. Tinkham, 83, died Wednesday after a long illness. A resident of Auburn for most of his life, he was a retired weaver from the Hill Mill. He was also “the Maine State Checker Champion” and a former contestant in the world checker championships. He was, his obituary said, “considered an expert in the game.”

“Signs of spring seemed ‘to be breaking out all over’ Wednesday in the Twin Cities as the temperature reached to a peak of 45 degrees at 5 p.m. For the most part, it actually was a nice day. What made it seem more like spring was the presence of some robins in several neighborhoods, some children jumping rope and in other sections hopscotch squares were drawn on walks and streets.”

25 years ago: 2000

“Hoping to prevent the architectural heritage of Lewiston from being razed to make room for modern structures, the Lewiston Historic Preservation Review Board has published a manual. ‘This is an important moment for the Historic Preservation Review Board,’ said Jim Lysen. The Lewiston Historic Preservation Design Manual was written to provide guidelines for the review board, to instill desire and provide knowledge to owners of historic properties and to ‘be used as a reference manual by property owners considering … exterior changes to an individual older structure anywhere in Lewiston,’ according to the introduction.”

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