A Look Back, March 1

200 Years Ago

■Asahel Pomeroy has for sale if applied for soon, that valuable lot of land in Venture’s Field, formerly owned by Col. Seth Pomeroy, containing 12 to 14 acres of mowing and plowing, with some fruit trees on it. A liberal credit will be given, if desired.

■The selectmen of Northampton will rent the pews in the meetinghouse, owned by the town, for the year ensuing, at auction on Friday next at 4 o’clock in the afternoon at Warner’s Coffee House.

100 Years Ago

■Miss Agnes Kroll of State Street has gone to Washington, D.C., to visit friends and attend the inauguration of President Coolidge. Later she will go to Denver, Colo., for an extended visit.

■President Coolidge with typical thoroughness has already completed arrangements for greeting the Northampton contingent, 100 strong, that will embark on the inauguration special train tonight. The President has delegated to his personal secretary, Edward T. Clark, also a former resident of Northampton, the task of making up eligible lists for admission to two receptions to be given at the White House.

50 Years Ago

■The elementary French and the high school English programs emerged unscathed from a budget review by the teachers committee of the Northampton School Committee last night, but the committee recommended raising minimum course sizes at the high school. High School Principal John J. Feeney told the committee that raising the minimum course size from 10 to 15 students, as school committee member Joseph Natale had suggested, would wreak havoc with scheduling.

■“A proof-of-the-pudding collation” is how editor Jacqueline Van Voris describes the just-published “College: A Smith Mosaic.” The 200-page volume is a completion of excerpts from some 150 interviews with Smith College alumnae and pursues the theme of what a Smith education has meant to them.