Cushman, Charles L., House
8 Cushman Pl., Auburn, METhe Charles L. Cushman House is significant as an unusual architectural specimen in the Queen Anne style and certainly one of the finest residential designs of George M. Coombs, Aubum's prolific and leading late 19th-century architect. The house is also important as a reflection of the affluence derived from shoe manufacturing, the city's most important industry in the period.
Beautifully sited on a bluff overlooking the city, this massive pile of field stone with its ornamented gables, circular comer tower and elaborate porch and porte-cochere, was built in 1889 by Charles L. Cushman, son of Ara Cushman, founder of one of the largest shoe manufacturing complexes in New England. At the time the house was built Charles was vice president and general superintendent of the manufacturing department of the Ara Cushman Company which consisted of three factories with 118,500 square feet of space and over 1,000 employees. All of this had sprung from a small three-man operation in nearby Minot begun by his father in 1854.
Besides the great stone house, the estate consisted of a large greenhouse, stables and a tennis court on several acres of land. Now, only the house remains on a reduced but still ample plot.
George M. Coombs (1852-1909) was the leading architect in the Lewiston-Auburn area for many years and participated in the design of the majority of the public and Industrial buildings of the period in both cities. He also executed many residential commissions for many of the impressive late 19th-century houses for which the region is noted. Outstanding among these is the Cushman House which received national attention after selection for publication in the American Architect and Building News on December 21, 1889.
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1980.
The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.