100 Years Ago - Jan. 12, 1912
On Saturday morning the fire department was called out by a slight blaze in the cellar at the home of M.F. D'Arcy on Gardner avenue. No damage resulted, and the "all-out" sounded almost immediately after the ringing in of the alarm.
J.P Wakefield has had his house on Maple avenue wired for electricity. Dane & Manning did the work.
Charles G. Willard has purchased a lot of land on Punchard avenue from the Cochran estate. He intends to build a two-tenement house on the same.
Owing to the extreme cold on Sunday morning, the service at the South Church was held in the vestry.
75 Years Ago - Jan. 8, 1937
Andover had a very poor year, as far as vital statistics are concerned, for the town clerk's annual figures show that the town is going up in deaths and dropping in marriages and births.
A request for a new police car will be made at the annual town meeting, it was learned this week. The car would replace the car bought in 1934. Another car bought in 1935 is still in very good condition.
The lot at the corner of Lowell and North Main streets, long the subject of a controversy which finally reached the State Supreme court and which indirectly led to the adoption of the town zoning law, will be a town park in memory of William M. Wood, according to plans of members of the Wood family who recently bought the lot.
50 Years Ago - Jan. 11, 1962
The school committee has adopted a 1962 budget of $1,613,460 - greater than last year by $151,174. The bulk of this increase comes in salaries—boosted by $128,000. Increases in the department's expenses amount to $23,000 over the appropriations of a year ago.
The selectmen are preparing to recommend many street acceptances to the town meeting for favorable action. The streets, all of which are old, familiar ways in the town, have never been properly acted upon at town meeting. But they have been in use for many years — some for over half a century — and have been maintained by the town.
Residents of Andover will have an unusual opportunity next Tuesday evening to get the inside story on alleged corruption in Massachusetts. Elliot L. Richardson, the United States Attorney who prosecuted and obtained a conviction in the Bernard Goldfine case and who prosecuted the Thomas Worcester case, will speak at the Central Elementary School Auditorium on political corruption in Massachusetts.
25 Years Ago - Jan. 15, 1987
The South Church petition for a reduction in the number of required parking spaces for an addition at 41 Central St. was met by numerous arguments from abuttors at the Zoning Board of Appeals hearing last Thursday night, and was then withdrawn by the church during the board's deliberation meeting on Saturday.
The mid-winter dinner of the League of Women Voters will be held Wednesda,y Jan.21, at the Lanam Club. State Representative Sue Tucker will speak on "Abused Women and Emergency Services."
In addition to appointing one of seven candidates to the Zoning Board of Appeals, the Board of Selectmen discussed the condition of the Abbot campus, presently owned by Phillips Academy, and street lighting.
