The Androscoggin Mill Block is an historic tenement house at 269-271 Park Street in

Lewiston, Maine Lewiston (; ; officially the City of Lewiston, Maine) is List of cities in Maine, the second largest city in Maine and the most central city in Androscoggin County, Maine, Androscoggin County. The city lies halfway between Augusta, Maine, August ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. The two-story brick building was one of several built in 1866 by the Androscoggin Mill Company to provide housing for workers with families, and is one of only three such 19th-century buildings to survive in the city. The building was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 2001.

Description and history

The Androscoggin Mill Block is set at the southern edge of Lewiston's downtown area, and about two blocks east of the canal from which the city's 19th-century mills drew their power. It is one of three nearly-identical buildings on the west side of Park Street, north of its junction with Maple Street. It is a two-story brick building, with a low hip roof and a

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...

foundation. Its main facade is four bays wide, and is symmetrically arranged, with two doorways in the center bays on the first floor, and sash windows in the other bays. The windows have granite lintels and sills, and the cornice is studded with Italianate brackets. The sides of the building have six bays of windows on each level. The interior of the building as built housed four units, two on each floor. Much of the original

woodwork Woodworking is the skill of making items from wood, and includes cabinet making (cabinetry and furniture), wood carving, joinery, carpentry, and woodturning. History Along with stone, clay and animal parts, wood was one of the first materials ...

from the building's construction has been preserved, despite a variety of uses and the addition of indoor plumbing to the building. Due to rapid growth beginning in the 1850s, all of the major operators of mills in Lewiston began to build housing for their workers. Most of these facilities were little more than boarding houses, with single rooms and communal dining rooms. Of 44 known to have been built between 1852 and 1866, only five were found to be still standing by a c. 2000 survey. Two of those, built by the Continental Mill Company, were boarding houses that have since been converted to more conventional residential use. This building is one of the three surviving buildings built specifically to house worker families. They were built for the Androscoggin Mill Company by a prolific local master builder, Thomas Dresser Thorne. This building was sold by the company into private hands, and was owned by the city at the time of its listing on the

in 2001.

References

{{National Register of Historic Places Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Maine Houses in Lewiston, Maine Houses completed in 1866 Apartment buildings in Maine 1866 establishments in Maine National Register of Historic Places in Lewiston, Maine Greek Revival architecture in Maine Italianate architecture in Maine

Description and history

See also

References