100 years ago, 1917
Mr. Brownstein, proprietor of the motion picture theatre at Lewiston City Hall, and George N. Heald, manager, have returned from a two days’ trip to Boston. With them they brought the news that Mr. Brownstein had purchased a $10,000 organ which will be installed at City Hall inside of two weeks. The machine is a product of the Photoplayer Co., Berkeley, Calif., and is so constructed that it can be played as an organ, piano, or as a ten-piece orchestra. Both Mr. Brownstein and Mr. Heald are enthusiastic over the possibilities of the instrument. Mr. Brownstein also made important picture contracts.

50 years ago, 1967
Retired Police Capt. Rene J. Larrivee, declaring that Lewiston has been taken over by a “smug political machine” which has made its citizens virtual “prisoners of boss rule and big shot complex,” officially entered the mayoralty race Sunday night with a roundhouse swing at the present administration. He alleged the city is being run by a select group on its way to taking over the political life of Androscoggin County. Larrivee retired from the Police Department in July and is making his first bid for political office.

25 years ago, 1992
Gasoline contamination of an Upper Gloucester aquifer will cost at least $100,000 to clean up, selectmen were told Monday. Underground gasoline tanks that leaked more than a decade ago are causing the problem, which could take up to six years to fix, Maine Department of Environmental officials told selectmen. Roads were found to have gasoline contaminated drinking water in 1985. DEP officials were first notified about the smell of gasoline in a private drinking water supply. Subsequently, DEP officials in 1986 found three neighboring properties with high hydrocarbon samples, but only the first property’s water supply remained contaminated after that.

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