A Look Back: Dec. 21, 2024

200 Years Ago

■Jonathan Smith, agent, respectfully informs the inhabitants of Northampton and vicinity that he has taken the shop opposite the house of the Hon. Samuel Hinckley, where he will keep constantly on hand a complete assortment of school and other books, with a great variety of stationary, which will be sold at reasonable prices. A small circulating library is connected with the establishment.

■E. S. Phelps, treasurer and collector for the town of Northampton, gives notice to delinquents that the treasury is empty of cash and that they must immediately pay their taxes, or he will be obliged to call with more earnestness. Non-residents will save cost by paying their taxes by the first of January.

100 Years Ago

■Expressing their “appreciation of the admirable dramatic entertainment provided by Arling Alcine and the Northampton Players during the past eleven weeks,” the board of trustees of the Academy of Music, in a statement issued for publication following a meeting held this morning, regretted “that the patronage of the theater has not been sufficient to make it financially possible to continue the engagement.”

■Through the quick action of L.U. Lombardi, riding master of West Street, Francis Staniszewski, the seven-year-old son of Frank Staniszewski of Paquette Avenue, was rescued from drowning yesterday when the boy broke through the ice on the Mill River near the West Street bridge.

50 Years Ago

■Pro Brush division of Vistron Cop. announced temporary layoffs Friday that will affect 700 of its 850 employees. The virtual shutdown of Hampshire County’s largest industrial employer will run through Jan. 5. Elsewhere in the county, the job outlook is equally bleak, as state officials say that some 2,000 workers have received temporary layoffs over the holiday season.

■The Northampton City Council voted 7-1 Thursday to hire a systems analyst to study the city’s needs for data processing. Council President Robert Patenaude, who headed a committee to study data processing, explained that a computer system for the city would help in financial management, record keeping, billing, administration and payroll processing.