100 years ago, 1914
In demolishing the dignified but aged Pickard mansion on Elm street, Auburn, clear pine boards, 30 feet long and 30 inches wide, are found. Mr. Foss, of Dingley, Foss & Co., who will build a fine residence on the peerless residential site of the first settlers, pays suitable tribute to the founders of the town. His projected residence will be “Colonial.”

50 years ago, 1964
The Hana Shoe Company, a subsidiary of a Lowell, Mass., shoe firm, started manufacturing high-grade woman’s shoes at the Continental Mills building in Lewiston today. Hana President Nate Waldeman reported later that the shoe cutting began today with some four cutters at work. He said the firm hoped to employe nine cutters by the end of the week, however, and in less than two weeks, it is expected that lasting workers will be on the job. Within a year the city’s newest shoe firm hopes to manufacture at the rate of 3,600 shoes per day, “or 1,000 cases,” The new shoe firm has leased practically the entire second floor of the large mill building.

25 years ago, 1989
The dirty white foam that has plagued the Androscoggin River has increased this week and state officials say they are trying to find out why the maligning bubbles have become more obvious. “Yesterday, they thought there was more foam than usual,” state Department of Environmental Protection Biologist Barry Mower said of the report of a conservation agent’s tests Thursday on the Androscoggin. While the river has yet to become one mass of foam, the usual lines of dingy bubbles seem to have increased this week, widening out into a swath below the James B. Longley Memorial Bridge. The increase in foam was noticed by DEP Conservation Agent Michael Koza, the biologist who has collected water samples from the Androscoggin since a color, odor and foam study began June 15. Paper manufacturers are involved in the study because the foam, odor and murky color of the river traditionally have been blamed on their upstream mills.

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