A Look Back, April 8

50 Years Ago

■Amherst is one of about five top contenders for the location of the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum, library officials said yesterday. In Amherst, the prime location is the “northwest site,” located on the UMass campus off Commonwealth Avenue and behind the transit service garage.

■At least two offers have been made for the purchase of McCallum’s Department Store on Main Street and one offer has apparently been accepted, the Gazette has learned. If the sale now being negotiated is completed, the former department store would be converted into a “mini-mall” containing various small specialty shops.

25 Years Ago

■The state has begun plans to demolish a house it owns at the corner of Damon Road and Route 9 to make way for additional parking and facilities for people who use the Northampton-Amherst bike trail. In the meantime, the local historical commission has gotten the go-ahead from the state Department of Environmental Management for additional time to research whether the structure is historically important.

■FleetBoston Financial Corp. will close 23 branches in the state, including some in Northampton, Hadley and Easthampton, the company said Friday. The Fleet branch office at 109 Main St. will be closed, as will branches at 130 North King St., 142 Russell St., Hadley, and 11 Union St., Easthampton.

10 Years Ago

■When the call came telling him he had been voted into the Hall of Fame, Kentucky coach John Calipari had an immediate reaction. He steered his car to the curb and let the reality of basketball’s greatest honor soak in. The former University of Massachusetts coach said, “To be honest, I got emotional. My dad always said, it’s OK to feel phony. Just don’t be phony.”

■For first time in a dozen years, a new pair of young peregrine falcons has nested on the top of the W.E.B. Du Bois Library at the University of Massachusetts. The nesting site lost the pair that had been there for more than a decade when the male died in January and the female never returned. That pair produced 34 chicks.