Lewiston, Maine

Lewiston, Maine
—  City  —

Seal
Motto: Industria
Location of Lewiston, Maine
Coordinates:
Country United States
State Maine
County Androscoggin
Government
 - Mayor Laurent F. Gilbert, Sr.
Area
 - City 35.2 sq mi (91.1 km2)
 - Land 34.1 sq mi (88.3 km2)
 - Water 1.1 sq mi (2.8 km2)
Elevation 217 ft (66 m)
Population (2000)
 - City 35,690
 - Density 1,047.0/sq mi (404.2/km2)
 - Metro 107,552
Time zone Eastern (UTC-5)
 - Summer (DST) Eastern (UTC-4)
ZIP codes 04240, 04241, 04243
Area code(s) 207
FIPS code 23-38740
GNIS feature ID 0569502
Website ci.lewiston.me.us

Lewiston is a city in Androscoggin County in the U.S. state of Maine and the second-largest city in the state. The population was 38,000 at the 2007 census. It is one of two principal cities of and included within the Lewiston-Auburn, Maine Metropolitan New England City and Town Area and the Lewiston-Auburn, Maine Metropolitan Statistical Area (which is part of the Portland-Lewiston-South Portland, Maine Combined Statistical Area).

A former industrial center, it is located in south-central Maine, at the falls of the Androscoggin River, across from Auburn. Lewiston and Auburn are often thought of as a single entity and referred to as Lewiston-Auburn, which is colloquially abbreviated as L-A or L/A, and have and a combined population of roughly 65,000 people. Lewiston is home to Bates College, the Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul, the University of Southern Maine's Lewiston-Auburn College, and two significant regional general hospitals: Central Maine Medical Center and Saint Mary's Regional Medical Center.

Contents

History

Early period

The Lewiston area was formerly inhabited by peoples of the Androscoggin Tribe, also known as Arosaguntacook. The Androscoggins were a tribe in the Abenaki Nation. They were driven out of the area in 1690 during King Phillips war. They were relocated at St. Francis, Canada, which was destroyed by Rogers' Rangers in 1759, and is now Odanak.

A grant composing the area of Lewiston was given to Moses Little and Jonathan Bagley, members of the Pejepscot Proprieters, on January 28, 1768 on the condition that fifty families lived in the area before June 1, 1774. Bagley and Little named the new town "Lewistown". Paul Hildreth was the first man to settle in Lewiston in the fall of 1770. By 1795, Lewiston was officially incorporated as a town. At least four houses that have survived from this period are currently listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

King Avenue, Ralph Avenue and Elliott Avenue were named after Ralph Luthor King, who owned the land located near the fairgrounds. he was married to Grace O. Elliott, whose son eventually built the family home at 40 Wellman Street.

Industrial development period

Lewiston was a slow but steadily growing farm town throughout its early history. By the early to mid 1800s, however, as water power was being honed, Lewiston's location on the Androscoggin River would prove to make it a perfect location for emerging industry.

In 1809, Michael Little built a large wooden sawmill next to the falls. Burned in 1814 by an arsonist, it was later rebuilt. In 1836, local entrepreneurs — predominantly the Little family and friends — formed the Androscoggin Falls Dam, Lock and Canal Company:

"...for the purpose of erecting and constructing dams, locks, canals, mills, works, machines, and buildings on their own lands and also manufacturing cotton, wool, iron, steel, and paper in the towns of Lewiston, Minot, and Danville." [1]

Benjamin E. Bates from 1877-78 The Bates Student

Later reorganized as the Lewiston Water Power Company the new sales of stock attracted Boston investors — including Thomas J. Hill, Lyman Nichols, George L. Ward, Alexander De Witt, and Benjamin E. Bates (namesake of the Bates Mill and Bates College) – who financed a canal system and several textile mills on the Androscoggin River. This began Lewiston's transformation from a small farming town into a textile city on the model provided by Lowell, Massachusetts. The Bates Mill remained the largest employer in Lewiston from the 1850s to the 21st century.

Lewiston's population boomed in the 19th century. In 1849 the railroad came to Lewiston. With it came a significant amount of Irish workers moving into the city to help build the canals and mills. During the Civil War, high demand for textiles provided Lewiston with a strong industrial base. Starting in the 1870s, railroad connections to Canada brought an even more significant influx of French-Canadian millworkers, replacing the former "yankee millgirls", and the city's population has been largely Franco-American since. The Franco-Americans settled in an area downtown that became known as "Little Canada". From 1840 to 1890, Lewiston's population exploded from 1,801 to 21,701. During this time, in 1863, Lewiston was incorporated as a city.

The local Kora Shrine was organized in 1891 and held its first meetings in a Masonic temple on Lisbon street. This group would from 1908 to 1910 build the Kora Temple on Sabattus street, the largest home of a fraternal organization in the state. Architect George M. Coombs designed this Moorish style structure.

City leaders decided to build a cathedral in which the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland could relocate. Construction of the Church of Saints Peter and Paul began in 1905 and ended in 1938, mostly funded through thousands of small donations from Lewiston residents. It is the largest Roman Catholic Church in Maine, and Lewiston's most prominent landmark. While the Diocese of Portland did not relocate to Lewiston, the church became a basilica in 2004. It is one of the few American basilicas located outside of a major metropolitan area.

Lewiston factories circa 1910

Industrial decline period

After World War I, profits from the textile industry in New England mill towns such as Lewiston, Manchester, New Hampshire, Waterbury, Connecticut, and Fall River, Haverhill, Lawrence, and Lowell, Massachusetts began to decline. Businesses began moving to the South due to lower costs of power from more modern technologies (Lewiston's water wheel technology gave way to hydroelectricity, cheaper transportation (as most cotton and materials came from the South), and cheaper labor.

Starting in the late 1950s, many of Lewiston's textile mills began closing. This gradually led to a run-down and abandoned downtown area. Chain stores previously located downtown—Woolworth's, W. T. Grant, S. S. Kresge, JC Penney and Sears Roebuck—shut their doors or moved to malls on the outskirts of Lewiston or Auburn. The city's flagship department store, the four-story B. Peck & Co., closed after more than a century in business in 1982. As businesses and jobs began to leave the city, people followed. The population stopped increasing at its previous rate and began to slowly decline after 1970, then at a greater rate in the 1990s.

Economic diversification and renaissance

Following a difficult economic period in the 1980s that saw high unemployment and downtown stagnation, several key events have led to a period of economic and cultural renaissance, including the transformation of the historic Bates Mill Complex. Because the city took over the complex in 1992 after back taxes went unpaid, years of taxpayer frustration in the city's need to maintain the 1,100,000-square-foot (100,000 m2) behemoth led to two referenda (one non-binding vote, the other binding). Voters soundly supported the need to pursue redevelopment by maintaining the property and selling it to private developers. In 2001, the city sold three mill buildings to local developers. Platz Associates, then in 2003, sold the Bates Mill Complex, with the exception of Mill 5 and a small support building. For the next four years, a number of business enterprises flourished after Platz redeveloped the mill building.

In May 2004, the city of Lewiston announced a plan for urban renewal near its downtown area. The plan is to demolish several blocks of nineteenth-century millworker housing, lay new streets with updated infrastructure, construct more owner-occupied, lower-density housing, and build a boulevard through one neighborhood using federal Community Development Block Grant funds provided over a period of ten years. Many residents of the affected neighborhoods felt that the plan was initially announced with very little input from them. They formed a neighborhood group called "The Visible Community", which has since been actively involved in the planning process, which has resulted has been cooperation between neighbors and city officials to redesign Kennedy Park, including input on the location of new basketball courts, and feedback regarding creation of the largest all-concrete skate park in Maine.

Downtown is now home to a new headquarters for Oxford Networks, along with a $20 million upgrade in local fiber-optics, a new auto parts store, a campus for Andover College, the headquarters for Northeast Bank, a parking garage, and the newly renovated Maine Supply Co. building, listed on the National Register of Historic Places. That facility is now called the Business Service Center at Key Bank Plaza, and is home to the local Chamber of Commerce, the Lewiston-Auburn Economic Growth Council, and an innovative arrangement with a number of business service providers. The area's renaissance has gained local, regional, and national recognition. In 2002 and again in 2006, the L-A area led the state in economic development activity, according to the Maine Department of Economic and Community Development's list of business investments and expansions. In a 2006 KPMG International study measuring the cost of locating and maintaining a business, Lewiston ranked first among the New England communities analyzed, and finished 24th out of 49 U.S. communities analyzed.

Lewiston also earned a 2007 All-America City Award designation by the National Civic League. The national competition "recognizes communities whose residents work together to identify and tackle community-wide challenges and achieve measurable, uncommon results." Only 10 cities are selected as All-America Cities each year. Lewiston was the first Maine city to earn the distinction since Auburn in 1967.

Somali and Bantu migration

In 1999, at the urging of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), the United States government began preparations to resettle an estimated 12,000 refugees from the Bantu minority ethnic group in Somalia to select cities throughout the United States. Most of the early arrivals in the United States settled in Clarkston, Georgia, a city adjacent to Atlanta, but the latter contend that they encountered problems there with local criminals.[2]

Word soon spread that a small town in Maine by the name of Lewiston had a low crime rate, good schools and cheap housing, and even reached as far as the refugee camps in Kenya.[3] Somalis subsequently began trickling in to the former mill town, soon followed en masse by hundreds of Bantus over a period of just a few months.[2]

In 2006, it was estimated that well over 50% of Somali immigrant adults were still unemployed, even after five years from their arrival in Lewiston as reported by William Finnegan of New Yorker Magazine[4]. A 2008 report by the State of Maine's Department of Labor confirmed the anecdote showing unemployment at 51%.[5]

In October 2002, then-Mayor Laurier T. Raymond wrote an open letter addressed to leaders of the Somali community, predicting a negative impact on the city's social services and requesting that they discourage further relocation to Lewiston. The letter angered some people and prompted some community leaders and residents to speak out against the mayor, drawing national attention. Demonstrations were held in Lewiston, both by those who supported the Bantus' presence and those who opposed it.[2]

In January 2003, a small white supremacist group demonstrated in Lewiston in support of what they believed the mayor meant, prompting a simultaneous counter-demonstration of about 4,000 people at Bates College and the organization of the "Many and One Coalition". Only 32 attended the rally by the white supremacist group. The Mayor was out of state on the day of the rallies, while the governor and other dignitaries attended.

In 2006, a frozen severed pig's head was thrown into a Lewiston mosque while the faithful were praying. This was considered very offensive by the town's Muslim community, as swine is viewed as unclean in Islam and eating pork is prohibited.[6] The culprit admitted to the act and claimed it to be a joke. He later committed suicide.[7]

Lewiston Today

Large Businesses

Central Maine Medical Center view from High Street.
The Lewiston Sun Journal's Main Office, located Downtown on Park Street.

Lisbon St.

Main St.

Main St. in Lewiston is US-Route 202, ME-Route 11, and ME-Route 100.

Neighborhoods

Saint's Peter and Paul Basilica, one of only a few basilica's in New England, and the only in Maine is located downtown on Ash Street in Lewiston.

In this neighborhood is:

Webster Street neighborhood

Comprised of mostly suburban mid-income housing. This neighborhood runs in between Lisbon Street and Webster street, and East Ave, and Alfred Plourde Parkway. Schools that serve this neighborhood are Farwell Elementary, Martel Elementary, Lewiston Middle School, and Lewiston High School.

Pond Road Neighborhood

This neighborhood is comprised of the triangle of roads between Pond Road, Randall Road, and Sabattus Street(Route 126). This neighborhood is mostly mid-income suburban residential. The schools that serve this area is McMahon Elementary, Lewiston Middle School, and Lewiston high School.

Transportation

Public transportation

Fares:

The downtown shuttle is the only line that requires no fare at all. It runs through the downtown of both Lewiston and Auburn. The Citylink's station is located in Auburn. Its maintains only one line that goes into Lisbon. The Citylink services on average approximately 235,000 people a year.

Private transportation companies

Taxi Cab companies:

Other Transportation companies

Roadways and major routes

Bridges

Airports and bus station

Although the city is serviced by an airport, most people use the Portland International Jetport for commercial flights in and out of the state.

Culture

Library

Museums

Franco-American Heritage Center

The Franco-American Heritage Center opened in 2000 in what was formerly St. Mary's Parish. The performing arts center programs events for both Franco-American related performances as well as other cultural displays, such as the Center's Piano and Celtic Series. The diverse programming of the venue hosts both local and international performers. The Center also hosts events and serves as a museum of the city's Franco-American past with historical artifacts and documentation on display as well as a small library.

The Public Theatre

Lewiston also features The Public Theatre, which puts on different plays throughout the year with about six to eight productions per season. It is located downtown on Maple St. It was formerly located on Park street. It features all types of plays, with actors from all over the world. Its offices are located in Auburn at the Great Falls Plaza.

Events

The Great Falls Balloon Festival

The Great Falls Balloon Festival is an event that is held one weekend in August every year. The Festival includes launching of balloons, games, and carnival rides. The launch sites take place at several open parks on the Lewiston-Auburn Androscoggin Riverfront. People come from all around the country and Canada to see the festivities. It is said to be the cities biggest annual event.

Festival FrancoFun

Formerly known as Festival de Joie, Festival FrancoFun is held annually at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee and is a celebration of the city's Franco-American heritage. The festival features performances from French-Canadian musicians as well as nativeFrench-Canadian food.

Liberty Festival

Held on July 4 of each year, the festival is the name given to the fireworks event over the Great Falls of the Androscoggin River in between the twin cities. The fireworks are launched in West Pitch Park in Auburn. Major viewpoints of the fireworks are Veterans Park, railroad Park, Mardens parking lot in Lewiston, and Great Falls Plaza in Auburn.

Patrick Dempsey Challenge

Lewiston is where the Patrick Dempsey challenge is held every year as of 2009. In its opening year the event raised over one million dollars for cancer research. This event attracts famous athletes from all around including some who participate in the Tour de France. All the proceeds go to the Patrick Dempsey Center for Cancer Hope at the Central Maine Medical Center.

Media

Newspapers

Magazines

Television

Lewiston is part of the , and receives all major channels in that market; WGME-TV and WCSH both have local bureaux in Lewiston, located across the street from each other on Main Street.

Radio

Lewiston is part of the , and receives most major stations in that market.

Sports and recreation

Androscoggin Bank Colisee

The Androscoggin Bank Colisée

The center of sports in Lewiston is the Androscoggin Bank Colisée (formerly known as the Central Maine Civic Center). The Lewiston Maineiacs, the only American team in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League play here. The Colisée is also the home to the state Class A and Class B high school hockey championships each year. The city as a whole is known for its strong passion for the game of hockey, likely related to its French-Canadian heritage. Two Lewiston schools, Lewiston High School and St. Dominic Regional High School (now located in Auburn), combine for over half of the state class A high school hockey championships in the state's history.

In 1965, Lewiston was the site of a Muhammad Ali--Sonny Liston heavyweight title fight. Only 2,434 fans were present at The Lewiston Colisee, which set the all-time record for the lowest attendance for a boxing heavyweight championship fight.

Lewiston Maineiacs

The Lewiston Maineiacs are a major junior hockey team located at The Colisée on Birch Street in Lewiston. They are in the TELUS Central Division of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL)/la Ligue de hockey junior majeur du Québec (LHJMQ). They are the only team in the league of 18 teams to be located in the United States. The franchise was relocated from Sherbrooke, QC in 2003 to Lewiston. They are currently in their sixth season in Lewiston. In 2006-2007 The Maineiacs had come in first place in the east, and won the 2007 Presidents Cup. They had taken part in the 2007 Memorial Cup. Their current owners are Mark Just and Joel Bouchard. Several Maineiacs have been drafted into the NHL.

Education

Lewiston's public education system has recently seen a number of new buildings constructed for Farwell Elementary School and Pettingill School, now replaced with the 600 Student capacity Geiger Elementary School. Plans to redo the cities Thomas J. McMahon School are under way.

The city is also home to Bates College, one of the most prestigious small colleges in the country.

Colleges and universities

Public schools

Private schools

Geography

Lewiston is located at (44.097473, -70.192416)[8].According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 35.2 square miles (91.1 km²), of which, 34.1 square miles (88.3 km²) of it is land and 1.1 square miles (2.8 km²) of it (3.13%) is water. Lewiston is drained by the Androscoggin River, which is located on its western border. Lewiston is bordered by the city of Auburn beyond the river, and the towns of Greene, Sabattus, and Lisbon. It is located between Portland, the state's biggest city and cultural center, and the state capital of Augusta.

Climate

Climate data for Lewiston, Maine
Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year
Average high °F (°C) 29
(-1.7)		 32
(0)		 41
(5)		 53
(11.7)		 66
(18.9)		 75
(23.9)		 81
(27.2)		 79
(26.1)		 70
(21.1)		 59
(15)		 46
(7.8)		 33
(0.6)		 55
(12.8)
Average low °F (°C) 11
(-11.7)		 13
(-10.6)		 24
(-4.4)		 34
(1.1)		 45
(7.2)		 55
(12.8)		 61
(16.1)		 60
(15.6)		 51
(10.6)		 41
(5)		 31
(-0.6)		 18
(-7.8)		 37
(2.8)
Precipitation inches (mm) 3.5
(89)		 3.4
(86)		 4.0
(102)		 4.1
(104)		 3.7
(94)		 3.7
(94)		 3.4
(86)		 3.2
(81)		 3.0
(76)		 3.9
(99)		 5.0
(127)		 4.5
(114)		 45.3
(1,151)
Source: Weatherbase

Demographics

Historical populations
Census Pop. %±
1790 532
—
1800 948 78.2%
1810 1,038 9.5%
1820 1,312 26.4%
1830 1,549 18.1%
1840 1,801 16.3%
1850 3,584 99.0%
1860 7,424 107.1%
1870 13,600 83.2%
1880 19,083 40.3%
1890 21,701 13.7%
1900 23,761 9.5%
1910 26,247 10.5%
1920 31,791 21.1%
1930 34,948 9.9%
1940 38,598 10.4%
1950 40,974 6.2%
1960 40,804 −0.4%
1970 41,779 2.4%
1980 40,481 −3.1%
1990 39,757 −1.8%
2000 35,690 −10.2%
Est. 2007 35,131 −1.6%
sources:[9][10]

As of the census[11] of 2000, there were 35,690 people, 15,290 households, and 8,654 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,047.0 people per square mile (404.2/km²). There were 16,470 housing units at an average density of 483.2/sq mi (186.5/km²). The racial makeup was 95.75% White, 1.07% African American, 0.28% Native American, 0.84% Asian, 0.03% Pacific Islander, 0.36% from other races, and 1.66% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.26% of the population.

People of French descent are by far the most represented ethnic group in Lewiston, with 29.4% being of French-Canadian descent and 18.3% French. Following French are Irish at 10.2% and English at 9.9%. These numbers are from the 2000 Census, so do not include the recent migration of Bantus to the city.

There were 15,290 households out of which 25.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 40.9% were married couples living together, 11.8% had a female householder with no husband present, and 43.4% were non-families. 35.9% of all households were made up of individuals and 13.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.17 and the average family size was 2.81.

The median income for a household in the city was $29,191, and the median income for a family was $40,061. Males had a median income of $30,095 versus $21,810 for females. The per capita income for the city was $17,905. About 10% of families and 15.5% of the population were below the poverty line, including 13.8% of those under age 18 and 12.5% of those age 65 or over.

Language
From Modern Language Association Data Center

Language Population Percentage (%)
English 24,250 72.51%
French 8,620 25.77%
Spanish 280 0.83%
Other languages 293 0.88%

Voter Registration

Voter Registration and Party Enrollment as of November, 2006[12]
Party Total Voters Percentage
  Republican 4,146 17.7%
  Democratic 10,678 45.6%
  Unaffiliated 7,680 32.8%
  Green Party 869 3.8%
  Minor Parties 27 0.1%
Total 23,400 100%

Notable people

City Hall in 1908

In popular culture

Places of interest

National Historic Sites in Lewiston

Empire Theatre in 1907
Hospital Square in c. 1910
Kennedy Park in c. 1915
Old Post Office in 1915
Kora Temple Shrine in c. 1915
Bates Mills and canal in c. 1915

References

  1. ↑ Elder, Janus G. A History of Lewiston, Maine with a Genealogical Register of Early Families page 52.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 The Great Somali Welfare Hunt
  3. ↑ The New Yankees, Mother Jones, March/April 2004
  4. ↑ Finnegan, William, "Letter from Maine: New in Town, the Somalis of Lewiston." The New Yorker, December 11, 2006
  5. ↑ Employment Patterns of Somali Immigrants
  6. ↑ Cofie D. Malbouisson, Focus on Islamic Issues, (Nova Science Publishers: 2006), p.8
  7. ↑ SunJournal.com - Another side of Brent Matthews
  8. ↑ "US Gazetteer files: 2000 and 1990". United States Census Bureau. 2005-05-03. http://www.census.gov/geo/www/gazetteer/gazette.html. Retrieved 2008-01-31. 
  9. ↑ [1], accessed December, 2007.
  10. ↑ Lewiston city, Maine - Population Finder - American FactFinder
  11. ↑ "American FactFinder". United States Census Bureau. http://factfinder.census.gov. Retrieved 2008-01-31. 
  12. ↑ "Registration and Party Enrollment Statistics as of November, 2006". Maine Bureau of Corporations. http://www.maine.gov/sos/cec/elec/enr/enr06g.html#and. 

Further reading

External links

Somali immigration related

Municipalities and communities of Androscoggin County, Maine
County seat: Auburn
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