A Look Back: July 4

50 Years Ago

■Soaring temperatures drove Hampshire County residents outdoors yesterday, where Fourth of July celebrations featured record crowds. Some 1,000 to 1,200 people were in Chesterfield yesterday morning to watch 300 marchers file through the center of town in the 27th annual Fourth of July parade.

■Daniel P. Griffin, associate director of development at The Clarke School for the Deaf, has accepted appointment as director of development of Williston-Northampton School, according to a statement made today by Robert A. Ward, headmaster. He will begin his new assignment on Aug. 1.

25 Years Ago

■Young musicians from the Northampton Community Music Center’s Summer Chamber Music Program gave a performance in Sage Hall on the Smith College campus Friday afternoon. The performance put to work ensemble and improvisational skills that students learned in a weeklong workshop at the old South Street School in Northampton.

■The renovation of the Amherst Town Hall has won a state award in the 1999 Accessible Design Awards competition for combining handicapped accessibility with historical restoration. The project, completed in 1997, was judged outstanding and given the William B. Smith Memorial Award for “architecture that integrates historic preservation with effective accessibility design” by the Massachusetts Architectural Access Board.

10 Years Ago

■Mayor David J. Narkewicz is set to host the first in a series of monthly coffee hours next week when he will chat with local residents on the porch of the Florence Civic Center. The gatherings will offer a chance to ask the mayor about a variety of topics.

■Construction continues at Village Hill Northampton. MassDevelopment announced last month that it has sold a half-acre parcel in the center of Village Hill’s north campus to Wright Builders Inc. The Northampton construction company will use the land for the second phase of its previously announced 18-unit townhouse complex called The Upper Ridge.