A Look Back, June 11

50 Years Ago

■Lucy Wilson Benson, secretary of Human Services for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, has been elected to a five-year term on the board of trustees of Smith College. Mrs. Benson, who graduated from Smith in 1949 and received a master’s degree there in 1955, was national president of the League of Women Voters from 1968 to 1974.

■An eight-year effort by the federal government and four states to restore salmon to the Connecticut River has begun to pay off with the discovery last week of the first Atlantic salmon in the river in more than a century. “We feel the water quality is sufficient to sustain salmon in the river,” remarked one local wildlife official this morning.

25 Years Ago

■The former Elks Lodge on Center Street is due to change hands later this month, but members say they still have no solid prospects for another home. Gerald A. Ouellette, a member of the search committee for the lodge, said more than two years of looking has failed to find a building or a parcel of land that could serve as the site for a new lodge.

■After years of planning for a Sojourner Truth memorial statue, residents can now see seven proposed models and register opinions on which one would be the best for a small park in Florence. The maquettes are on display in the Florence Savings Bank.

10 Years Ago

■Police and fire officials are questioning JFK Middle School students as they continue to investigate a suspicious fire that caused irreparable damage to a boys’ bathroom and smoke damage to a whole wing of the school Wednesday. David Pomerantz, director of facilities for the city, estimated Monday that it will cost $15,000 to $20,000 to “rip out and rebuild” the bathroom.

■The owners of a house at the end of Day Avenue where it connects with North and Bates streets are proposing to tear down the house to build three separate units. According to Carolyn Misch, senior land use planner for the city, the project is a good example of the kind of “in-fill” development city leaders are encouraging to avoid sprawl by building residences that are near the bike path and within walking distance to downtown.