Main Street Historic District

Auburn's Main Street Historic District is comprised of a relatively small group of residential buildings erected between the second quarter of the nineteenth century and the first quarter of the twentieth century. The architecturally important houses, many of which were designed by prominent local architects, were built for and occupied by some of the city's leading citizens. In sum, these buildings depict Auburn's development from a tiny river settlement to a leading manufacturing center.

EARLY SETTLEMENT

The first settlement in the area now comprising the central business district of Auburn is believed to have begun about 1797- 98 when Joseph Welch erected a log cabin. Welch's purpose for building here was apparently linked to his occupation as a log driver and the fact that it was a suitable place to assemble rafts of logs that had passed over the nearby falls. Despite its proximity to the falls at this point of the Androscoggin River, the outpost established by Welch did not soon attract other people to it. This was primarily due to the fact that unlike the Lewiston side of the river (where early development was more rapid) the water flow on the west side of the river was too great for use by water-powered milling operations. In the outlying areas, however, settlement had proceeded to a somewhat greater degree such that by 1794 a local mail route was established and a schoolhouse built in 1799. Little sustained growth occurred on the west bank of the river for nearly the next quarter century.

1820-1848

In 1820 Zebina Hunt established a ferry service between the growing village of Lewiston on the east side of the Androscoggin and the settlement on the west side, but this apparently had little impact on the latter.2 However, with the construction in 1822-23 of a bridge linking the two sides, a new life was given to the Auburn settlement. By the time that the bridge was in operation Jacob Read and James Goff, Jr., had formed a partnership in a general store and moved a building onto the site of the Welch cabin (itself moved downstream sometime earlier). The pace of growth quickened thereafter in the so-called Goff's Corner area with the construction of houses along the two principal roads: River Road extending south toward Danville and a second road leading west toward Minot.

Among the new wave of immigrants to Goff's Corner during the late 1820s was Edward Little, a former resident of Portland who had come here to act as an agent for the extensive real estate and water power interests of his family. From his arrival in 1826 until his death twenty-two years later, Little was one of the two or three men who were most responsible for Auburn's development. In addition to selling portions of the family estate to encourage settlement, Little made available to developers the water rights of the Great Falls and acted as a benefactor to religious and educational institutions. He made his residence in the two-story house built for him along the River Road in 1827.

In the year of Edward Little's arrival, further evidence of the community's growth could be seen in the construction of a schoolhouse on the site now occupied by the courthouse. Little greatly augmented the local educational facilities when he founded the Lewiston Falls Academy in 1834 and donated $3,000 and a portion of his "rye field", located to the south of his house lot, for the construction of a building. In the previous year, he had donated a lot north of his house for the construction of a building for the newly formed Congregational Church. The continuous growth of the area resulted in 1842 in the formation of part of Minot of the Town of Auburn. Future development was virtually assured when, in 1848, the Androscoggin and Kennebec Railroad extended its line through the Goff's Corner community where it crossed the river to Lewiston. This action deflected much of the nascent industrial growth in the outlying villages of West and North Auburn and set the stage for a rapid period of development at Goff's Corner.

1849-1861

In 1836 the village of North Auburn was chosen by a group of settlers from Massachusetts as the site of a shoe factory, believed to be the first of its type in Maine." Similar enterprises were established here and in West Auburn, but with the construction of the railroad through Goff's Corner the center of the industry quickly began to shift. Among the earliest manufacturers to relocate was Jacob H. Roak who was previously associated with a shoe factory in West Auburn and subsequently became owner of the Minot Shoe Company in North Auburn." Roak and his partners Samuel Pickard and E. H. Packard formed the J. H. Roak Company and commenced operation in a building near the river bridge. The extent and obvious importance of this industry is evident in the fact that by 1859 there were twenty-five shoe manufacturing companies in the township."

The bright outlook for the Goff Corner area was further enhanced in 1854 when it was decided that this would become the site of the courthouse and jail for the newly created Androscoggin County. The subsequent construction of the facility from plans drawn by Boston architect Gridley J. F. Bryant dramatically illustrated the growth of Goff's Corner, hereafter referred to as Auburn Village. In recognition of the new status of the village, the selectmen decided to move the Town office from North Auburn to Auburn Village where a new Town House was built. Fortunately, neither building was damaged by an 1855 fire that consumed most of the wooden commercial and industrial buildings that had risen nearby. Reconstruction was immediate, however, and included a three-story brick row appropriately named the Phoenix Block.

Other signs of the community's development during the period include the establishment of the Democratic Advertiser newspaper in 1852, the founding of the Auburn Bank in 1855 (with J. H. Roak as its first president), and a marked population growth between 1850 and 1860 of from 2,840 to 4,022 persons.) Among the prominent buildings erected at this time was a new edifice on High Street for the Congregational Church and the addition of two houses in the district. The earlier of the two was the residence of merchant Nelson B. Reynolds, an Italianate-style house designed by Portland architect Charles K. Kirby. Jacob H. Roak also moved to the neighborhood upon completion of a handsomely sited Italianate dwelling that stands across from the former site of his partner Samuel Pickard's residence.

1861-1900

Despite the diversion of economic resources and manpower during the Civil War, Auburn Village actually appears to have benefitted from an increased demand for its shoes and boots combined with reduced competition." As if to underscore this point Ara Cushman, a shoe manufacturer in West Minot, moved his operation to the village in 1863. Output increased during the war years and manufacturing techniques improved, such that in 1865, 600,000 pairs of boots and shoes were being produced annually." This expansion continued unabated for the duration of the century, production having increased by a factor of 10 in the thirty-five years after 1865.

Auburn's post-war development is evident not only in the growth of the shoe industry but can also be judged by the existence of other businesses and institutions. In 1867, for example, a second bank was established, a third in 1875, and two others in 1887. A city charter was granted to Auburn in 1868 and approved by its residents the following year. In 1870 the town's population stood at 6,166 persons and the 1871 edition of the Maine State Year-Book listed no fewer than twenty-eight merchants of all types and sixteen shoe or shoe-related manufacturers. In addition to these factories, the Little Androscoggin Water Power Company (formed in 1870 with J. H. Roak among the founders) commenced construction in 1873 of the Barker Mill (N.R. 5/8/79), a cotton textile manufactory. By 1880 the local YMCA had established a public library of some 2,500 volumes.

Although there was substantial development in Auburn during the 1870s and 1880s, no houses were added to the historic district. The primary reason for this appears to be tied to the fact that potential house lots were unavailable because of the dominance of four large properties: those of the Edward Little heirs, his son Edward T. Little's widow, and the house lots of Jacob H. Roak and Samuel Pickard. This pattern is plainly evident on the 1873 Atlas of Androscoggin County, a map that also shows the great number of existing houses and small lots in the surrounding neighborhood as well as the grid plan of streets that had developed.

By the 1890s, however, construction began once again within the district's boundary. The opening of the decade saw the building of substantial Queen Anne houses on adjoining lots for local merchants Arthur A. Garcelon and Albert M. Penley. Both were designed by Lewiston architects, the former by Jefferson L. Coburn and Sons and the latter by George M. Coombs. The exuberant

detail of these two buildings, especially of Garcelon's, marked the zenith of the Queen Anne in the district, a fact that is evident by comparing them to the S. D. Thomas Double House of 1891. Designed by Elmer I. Thomas, this residence is more eclectic in character yet more restrained in appearance. A number of other similar houses were added to the district in this period and all of them underscore the final subdivision of the Little family properties, leaving only the Roak and Pickard lots with their mid-nineteenth century dimensions.

1900-1945

In 1900 Auburn's population stood at 12, 951 persons, a figure that showed a steady rise from the previous decade, and which continued to grow until it reached 19,817 on the eve of World War II. Economically, the city's manufacturing base continued to be wed to the production of shoes and boots. In 1922, the peak of annual output, 70,000 pairs of shoes were produced daily. At that time Auburn was the fifth largest shoe manufacturing center in the United States with some 8,000 persons directly employed by it. Increased competition, the Depression, a shoe cutter's strike in 1932, and a general strike in 1937 caused a decline in Auburn's shoe industry although it continued to be the state's leading manufacturing center for this product. Politically, the most significant change in the period occurred with the adoption in 1917 of the Council-Manager form of government.

The most important addition to the district at this time was the Horatio G. Foss House, an expansive Colonial Revival residence with a stucco finish. Designed by the Lewiston architectural firm of Gibbs and Pulsifer and built in 1914, the house became the residence of Foss, a partner in the shoe manufacturing company of Dingley and Foss (established 1876). Other building activity during this period was chiefly in the form of remodeling and the additions of porches and garages to existing houses. Of these, the expansion of the Adams-Little-Cobb House was the most dramatic. Between 1908 and 1914 its original Greek Revival form was remade into a Colonial Revival house with a gambrel roof and classically detailed porches.

1945-PRESENT

Post-war Auburn continued to have an economy principally based on shoe manufacturing. In addition to existing plants, new companies relocated or expanded their facilities in 1945 and as late as 1966. Textile production at the Barker Mill ceased in 1928, but a new company was organized in 1955 thereby aiding the diversification of the local economy. In more recent years both Auburn and Lewiston have engaged in vigorous campaigns to attract new business to the area. This renewed activity has begun to stimulate interest in Auburn's historic neighborhoods, a pattern which is plainly evident in the recent rehabilitation of three houses in the district. Similar work has also taken place on a small number of houses in the larger residential area that surrounds the district.