Like Biddeford, it could be said that the Lewiston-Auburn area (L/A) is still suffering from a reputation it doesn’t necessarily continue to deserve. L/A is an area which, while it still has some problems, seems to be making some real inroads toward transforming itself from a down and out mill community into something else entirely.

In its earliest years, L/A was a farming community with a few timber and grist mills set up along the river to support the small and slowly growing community.

In the early 1800’s, more developments were undertaken by outside interests, mainly from Boston and including a certain Benjamin E. Bates, and so began the building of the canals and textile mills. During these years, the Lewiston Water Company became the Franklin Company and the Bates Mills off Lisbon Street were built.

The cities and the mills prospered during the Civil War and city services expanded quickly. Hotels, opera houses, schools, theaters, hospitals and rail lines all found homes in the growing L/A region. Through these years, Lewiston-Auburn did well as the mills churned out textiles and shoes. The cities continued to expand and spread as the mills prospered. It was also during this time that there was an influx of French Canadian immigrants rushing to the cities to find employment in the new textile and shoe mills. Now known as Franco-Americans, this population flooded the area and set up a community known to this day as Little Canada.  The population of the two cities had grown to about 20,000 by 1880. It took only 40 years for L/A to reach this point.

In the early 20th century, many companies still doing business here moved into the area. The predecessors to ELMET Corporation, a metal works company, American Electro Metals and North American Philips began operations here. It was also during this time that the Geiger Brothers established their printing business which produces, of course, the Farmer’s Almanac.

As the 20th Century wore on, the mills began to feel pressure from the American South and abroad. Mills began to close and unemployment began to rise. The region began to feel the loss and much of what was grand about the L/A area began to tarnish and decline. By the late 60’s and early 70’s, the Lewiston-Auburn area had started to become considered seedy and unsafe. Industrial parks began to pop up on the outskirts of the cities which provided some jobs for the locals but also did nothing to revitalize the decrepit downtown. Lisbon Street hosted pawn and porn shops and many storefronts emptied. Contributing to this decline was, of course, the construction of both the Maine Mall in South Portland and the Auburn Mall, built far from downtown. As we’ve seen, suburban malls became the bane of Downtown USA.