A Look Back: Feb. 13

50 Years Ago

■The Clarke School for the Deaf announced today that it will close one of its dormitories this fall because of declining enrollment. School authorities said that they would close the Yale House, which is now the home of 16 five-year-olds, beginning in September of this year.

■At the annual meeting of the stockholders of the Northampton National Bank, Charles W. DeRose, co-publisher of the Daily Hampshire Gazette, was elected a new director of the bank. Directors re-elected were: Robert L. Ellis, Norman F. Graves, George H. Hartling, Richard S. Holden, William H. King, Everett W. Ladd Jr., Edwin L. Olander, Joseph V. Porada and Philip A. Singleton.

25 Years Ago

■Despite uncertainties over its budget for next year, the School Committee decided Thursday night to make all kindergarten classes full day, come September. The move, which will cost $130,000, expands a limited full-day program begun last September to include all kindergarten children in the coming school year.

■John T. Joyce, a member of the Board of Health for the last 44 years, has declined to seek reappointment to another three-year term. Joyce, 83, who is chairman of the board, said he wrote a letter to city officials this week saying that after nearly 4½  decades, it is time to retire from the panel.

10 Years Ago

■Hatfield’s popular Smithsonian Cafe and Chowder House is expanding to Northampton. The new venue will open this weekend on the main floor of the Roundhouse building, next to Forget me not Florist and opposite the Peter Pan bus terminal.

■The Northampton Survival Center is making a pitch to the Pioneer Valley Transportation Authority to bring a bus to its front door on Prospect Street. With the closest bus route stopping about a half-mile away at Stop & Shop on King Street, users of the Survival Center often find it difficult to get there to pick up food for their families, said Heidi Nortonsmith, executive director.