100 Years Ago — Feb. 7, 1913
At the next meeting of the November Club, there will be a debate on the question of Woman’s Suffrage. Mrs. Susan Fitzgerald, Secretary of the Massachusetts Political Equity Union, will speak in favor of suffrage, and Dr. Ernest Birnbaum, a member of the English Department of Harvard University, will speak as a representative of the Massachusetts Association Opposed to the Further Extension of Suffrage to Women.
An unusually large number of Andover people have witnessed the Scotch comedy, “Bunty Pulls the Strings,” which is playing at the Majestic Theatre, Boston, and which seems destined for a record-breaking run.
A blaze in a box of paper and rubbish in the cellar of Burns’ tailor shop was the cause of an alarm rung in from Box 52 about nine o’clock last Saturday evening. The trouble was quickly overcome, with slight damage resulting, by the use of chemicals.
The hose wagon for the local hose company is in an unsafe condition. The matter has been placed before the board of engineers and it is necessary that they act on the matter at once for the safety of the local firemen.
75 Years Ago — Feb. 4, 1938
The school board Tuesday night voted to ask the selectmen to insert an article in the town warrant asking an appropriation to purchase and install equipment for generating of electricity at the central schools.
The Andover cafeteria is this week observing the 10th anniversary of its coming under the active management of Gregory P. Christie under whose guidance it has grown steadily, furnishing to its many patrons the best that there is in environment and food. Typical of the service rendered was the flood incident of 1936 when the cafeteria stayed open all night to relieve flood sufferers and workers.
Opposition to the proposed sales tax for the state was voted informally last Friday night at the Taxpayers’ Association directors’ conference with town department heads. President Edmund E. Hammond brought the matter before the group and after a short discussion, during which some said that such a tax would make people more tax-conscious while others said that eventually it would be used to provide for additional unneeded governmental functions, a show of hands proved conclusively against the proposal.
Clams will cost Andover $143.84 this year. That is Andover’s share of the deficit of the shellfish purification plant at Newburyport. The expense was made necessary by sewage in the Merrimack River.
50 Years Ago — Feb. 7, 1963
The selectmen are still debating whether to issue a victualers license to McDonald’s drive-in on North Main Street. James Leans, manager of the new stand, told the board Monday that he hopes to open Feb. 11.
Eighteen local merchants and businessmen have indicated their support of a proposed Realty Trust, to handle redevelopment in an Urban Renewal area. Wallace M. Haselton of the Merrimack Valley National Bank, a member of the trust sub-committee, told the authority that the following businessmen had signified their interest in the trust; Austin Anderson, Andover Gift House; Frederick Cheever, real estate; R. Milton Cole, Cole Hardware; Joseph B. Doherty, Doherty Insurance and real estate; C. Lincoln Giles, developer of the Olde Andover Village.
Police are still hunting—with meager clues—for the hit-and-run motorist who struck Edward Ellis III, 17, 52 Morton St., as he walked along Shawsheen Road last Saturday night. Sgt. Robert Deyermond was able to talk with Ellis Tuesday, but he remembers nothing about the accident. He was walking home from the Grange building, where the Teen Center had a dance, about 11:30 p.m. The car that struck him was apparently heading toward Andover center.
25 Years Ago
Feb. 4, 1988
Business grows along River Road
The Planning Board listened Tuesday night to preliminary discussions over a proposed business park near the Marriott Hotel on River Road (editor’s note: now the Wyndham Andover Hotel). The proposed sub-division, known as the New England Business Center, would build two office buildings and a child care center on five lots located between the Marriott and land owned by the Andover Company.
The fate of the Shawsheen Extended Day program is up in the air. SHED may be forced out of its current location at the Shawsheen School due to space problems. A recommendation will be made to the School Committee at the end of February. “Everyone, the School Committee and the superintendent, are discussing it (the space problem) and discussing options,” said Sydney Bialo, SHED administrator.
A second appraisal for the value of the Champey parcel has placed the lands’s worth in the same neighborhood as the first—about $4 million. Although the appraisal does not affect the request for proposal being put together by the Housing Partnership Committee, fair housing committee members were keeping tabs on the land cost, usually the most expensive item on a development budget.
