Lisbon Falls High School

The Lisbon Falls High School is a notable example of Romanesque Revival architecture, located in the relatively small industrial town of Lisbon, Maine. The brick school, with finial topped tower, arched windows and doors, and terra cotta and granite accents, was the work of William R. Miller, a prolific Maine architect known for designing lavishly detailed public buildings. Opened in the spring of 1906, this school served the students of Lisbon Falls until 1952. The Lisbon Falls High School is nominated to the National Register of Historic Places under Criterion C, for its architectural significance as a good example of Romanesque Revival architecture in the local context, and as a representative example of the schools designed by Miller in the early twentieth century.

Although unified under one municipal name, Lisbon consists of three villages. On the Sabbattus River are Lisbon Center, at the town's geographical center near the former Farnsworth Mill; and Lisbon, located about one mile northwesterly of Lisbon Center (also known as Lisbon Factory for its association with Farwell Mill). The third village, Lisbon Falls, lies about three miles south of the Center, on the Androscoggin River. Of the three, Lisbon Center is the smallest settlement. The other two villages maintained their own business districts and cultural identity, and until the middle of the twentieth century, their own separate sets of schools. The town was incorporated in 1799, under the name Thompsonborough, which was then changed to Lisbon in 1802.

Prior to the middle of the nineteenth century, Lisbon was noted for its fertile intervales and fine agricultural lands, as well as a multitude of water powers. In 1861, however, the town's economy, population, and demographics were altered with the introduction of the Androscoggin Railroad Company (later Maine Central Railroad). Within three years the Worumbo (woolen) Mill was established in Lisbon Falls, followed shortly by the Farwell (cotton) Mill in Lisbon (also known as Lisbon Factory). The town became a secondary, but important industrial center (two of the state's industrial giants, Lewiston and Auburn, are 10 miles to the northwest), and over the next five decades, the population almost tripled from just under 1,400 to 4,116 residents. Between 1875 and 1914 the mills at Lisbon Falls attracted a large number of immigrants from Hungary, Poland, Germany, and what was later named Czechoslovakia, while Lisbon Factory became home to French Canadian workers. A significant fire in 1901 leveled much of Lisbon Falls' business district, yet the village rebuilt quickly and its economy continued to prosper. As a result of the town's general success and increasing demographics, the school Superintendent found it compelling to report in 1904 that "a new school building at Lisbon Falls before the beginning of another fall term seems to be an absolute necessity. Our present buildings are crowded to their utmost capacity and we can hardly find room for another pupil." (Town Report, 1904, p. 72).

Although the town abolished the district system in 1871 and had placed the schools under the control of a School Committee, the two major villages of Lisbon supported their own, separate schools well into the 20th century. The first high school in Lisbon Village [Factory] was built prior to 1884; its replacement, which was used until 1941, was constructed in 1893. In addition, there were several elementary schools. The pattern was similar at the other end of town. According to the 1905 Lisbon Town Register: "There are now three school buildings at Lisbon Falls, all built [except] for the high school. The oldest of these is now occupied by the intermediate grades; this was built in 1866. The building now occupied by the high and the grammar schools was built in 1892. The third is the new high school building, now nearing completion, which is being constructed at a cost of $20,000." (Mitchell and Campbell, p. 35.)

The town chose the Lewiston architect William R. Miller to design the new structure. Within a few years, Miller had designed notable and imposing schools in Lewiston, Bath, South Portland, and Wilton. The following summary of William R. Miller's early career is extracted from "A Biographical Dictionary of Architects in Maine: William R. Miller (1866-1929)."

Few architects in Maine produced designs as flamboyant and picturesque as William Robinson Miller. With a state-wide practice, based first in Lewiston and later, with Raymond J. Mayo, in Portland, Miller specialized in schools, libraries, hotels, and other structures intended for public use. The firm of William R. Miller lasted from 1896 until 1907 when it became Miller & Mayo.

Born in Durham on September 20, 1886, William was the son of Simon and Josephine Robinson Miller. He attended Bates College in the mid-1880s before working as a draftsman in the Lewiston office of George M. Coombs, the leading architect in western Maine. After two or three years in Coombs' office, Miller attended the School of Architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1891-92.

By the early 1900s, William R. Miller's reputation was established throughout much of southern and western Maine. Although he had designed large buildings in Lewiston, such as the Jordan High School of 1901-02 and the Universalist Church of 1903, major projects were scattered throughout the region.

Miller's reluctance to embrace changing stylistic trends in architecture is evident in his later work, of which the Lawrence High School in Fairfield is a good example. The national trends in school design during the early 1900s encouraged the construction of two-story Neo-Classical buildings with high basements and flat roofs. An emphasis on fire-proof materials and a consequent discouragement of heavy ornamentation was common. Like all of his school buildings, Miller's Lawrence High School of 1906-07 [and the subject school, Lisbon Falls High School] ran counter to this approach. The Fairfield school featured a French Renaissance design with multiple hipped roofs, "Chateauesque" dormers, and heavy sculptured brackets supporting wide overhanging eaves... A similar, larger design had been used for his Morse High School in Bath in 1903. Both of these buildings, as well as several other schools by Miller, eventually suffered serious fires.

The Romanesque Revival style school that Miller designed for the students of Lisbon Falls was not short on picturesque details. With its ornate tower, copper trim, commanding Romanesque entry arch, heavy, arched windows, and contrasting granite details, the High School remains the most 'exuberantly' designed building of the early twentieth century in the village. That the school was executed in brick also made it noteworthy in a town generally characterized by wood frame structures (except the mill), and which had recently suffered a large fire. For the town, it was both a source of pride and a 'modern' school. In the 1906 Town Report, the Superintendent of Schools wrote "Since our last report our new High School building at Lisbon Falls has been completed and the grounds graded and grassed over. This is a building well worthy of the pride of every citizen in our Town. We were able to move into it at the beginning of the spring term and our High School work has taken on a great impetus since that time. On account of having a Laboratory and some apparatus with which to work, we have been able to introduce a course in Physics which should be followed up another year with a course in Chemistry." (Town Report, 1906, p. 108).

In the years before his partnership with Raymond J. Mayo (and between 1926 and 1929, with Lester I. Beal) Miller received ten commissions for schools or educational buildings. Besides the Lisbon Falls High School, only four of these schools are extant: the National Register-listed Jordan High School, Lewiston, 1901-02; the altered Lawrence High School in Fairfield, 1906-07; and two buildings in the National Register-listed Hinckley Good Will Home Historic District, the Manual Training Building, 1903 (now a museum); and the Charles R. Moody School (1905-06). While the Lisbon Falls High School shares some design elements with these other buildings (deeply recessed arched entries, round-topped tracery windows, as well as oculus windows, decorative brackets, prominent dormers or projecting pavilions, and contrasting materials such as bricks and granite), the example in Lisbon Falls derives additional significance for its compact scale, asymmetrical facade, and tower.