Lewiston ( ) is the second-most populous city in the U.S. state of Maine, with a population of 37,121, according to the 2020 United States census. Located in Androscoggin County, the city lies halfway between Augusta, the state capital, and Portland, the state's largest city. Lewiston forms one half of the Lewiston–Auburn, Maine Metropolitan Statistical Area (known as "L/A" or "L-A"). The city has been recognized for its low cost of living, access to healthcare, and low crime rate.

Prior to European settlement, the region was inhabited by the Androscoggin people, an Abenaki tribe for whom the county is named. Lewiston was first settled in 1760 and incorporated as Lewistown in 1795. As the city industrialized, it experienced significant Irish and French Canadian immigration. It has the largest French-speaking population in the U.S., by population, second to only St. Martin Parish, Louisiana, by percentage.

The city became an important educational center in 1855 when local statesman Oren Burbank Cheney and industrialist Benjamin Bates founded what would become Bates College. The city has 44 properties listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the Androscoggin Bank Colisée, and two major medical centers: Central Maine Medical Center and Saint Mary's Regional Medical Center. The only basilica in Maine is the city's Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul.

History

Androscoggin homeland Prior to European colonization, the region of Lewiston was inhabited by the Androscoggin, an Abenaki people. During the 17th century, Androscoggin were among the first Native American tribes to make contact with European colonists in Maine. Relations soon deteriorated over colonial expansion, and conflicts with colonists and epidemics of infectious diseases devastated the Androscoggin, which responded by migrating to New France from 1669 onwards. By 1680, the Androscoggin had been completely driven out of Maine. The governor of New France, Louis de Buade, allocated them two seigneuries on the Saint Francis River.Bruce G. Trigger (ed.): Handbook of North American Indians. Vol. 15. Northeast. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington D.C. 1978

Colonial beginnings A grant comprising the area of Lewiston was given to Moses Little and Jonathan Bagley, members of the Pejepscot Proprietors, colonial land investors, on January 28, 1768, on the condition that fifty families live in the area before June 1, 1774. Bagley and Little named the new town Lewistown. Paul Hildreth was the first man to settle in Lewiston in the fall of 1770. By 1795, Lewiston was officially incorporated as a town.

Industrialization

Lewiston began to industrialize in the 19th century complementing a slow but steadily growing farming effort throughout its early history. By the early-to-mid-19th century, as water power was being honed, Lewiston's location on the Androscoggin River would prove to make it an ideal location for emerging industry. In 1836, local entrepreneurs formed the Androscoggin Falls Dam, Lock & Canal Company:...for the purpose of erecting and constructing dams, locks, canals, mills, works, machines, and buildings on their own lands and also manufacturing cotton, wool, iron, steel, and paper in the towns of Lewiston, Minot, and Danville.Elder, Janus G. A History of Lewiston, Maine with a Genealogical Register of Early Families page 52.

The sales of stock attracted Boston investors—including Thomas J. Hill, Lyman Nichols, George L. Ward and Alexander De Witt. De Witt convinced prominent industrialist Benjamin Bates, who at the time oversaw the Union Pacific Railroad, to come to Lewiston and finance the emerging Lewiston Water Power Company. Soon after Bates arrived, the company created the first canal in the city. In the spring of 1850, some 400 Irish men recruited in and around Boston by construction contractor Patrick O'Donnell arrived in Lewiston and began work on the canal system. Impressed with the labor force and "working spirit" of the Lewistonions, Bates founded the Bates Manufacturing Company, leading to the construction of five mills starting with the flagship Bates Mill.

In August 1850, Maine Governor John Hubbard signed the incorporation act and the mill was completed 1852. Bates positioned the mill in Lewiston due to the location of the Lewiston Falls which provided the mill with power. Under Bates' supervision, during the Civil War, the mill produced textiles for the Union Army. His mills generated employment for thousands of Irish, Canadians, and immigrants from Europe. The mill was Maine's largest employer for three decades.

The creation of the Bates manufacturing trusts saw rapid economic growth, positioning the city as one of the wealthiest in Maine, and created budding affluent districts such as the Main Street–Frye Street Historic District. Although the majority of the population was working class, a distinctive upper class emerged at this time. The Bates Mill remained the largest employer in Lewiston from the 1850s to the mid-late 20th century. The Androscoggin & Kennebec Railroad was constructed by Irish laborers, many of whom joined the Lewiston canal construction crews in 1850. The Irish laborers and their families lived in shanty-town neighborhoods called "patches". By 1854, one quarter of Lewiston's population was Irish, the highest concentration in Maine.

During the Civil War, the high demand for textiles helped Lewiston develop a strong industrial base. In 1861, a flood of French Canadian immigration into Maine began, spawned by industrial work opportunities in Maine cities with water power from waterfalls. This brought a significant influx of Québécois millworkers who worked alongside Irish immigrants and Yankee mill girls. Lewiston's population boomed between 1840 and 1890 from 1,801 to 21,701. French Canadians settled in an area downtown that became known as Little Canada, which has remained largely Francophone ever since.

It was around this time, from the 1850s onward, that local minister and statesman Oren Burbank Cheney traveled from Parsonsfield to Lewiston to establish an institution of higher learning in the city. The Maine State Legislature was petitioned by Lewiston locals to found the Maine State Seminary in 1855. Opening that year, the school educated the working class of Maine while also providing education for blacks and women at a time when other universities barred their entrance. At its founding, it became the first coeducational college in New England.Mary Caroline Crawford, The College Girl of America and the Institutions which make her what she is, (LC Page, Boston: 1904), pg. 284

Lewiston incorporated as a city in 1863 and the seminary was renamed Bates College a year later to honor early backer Benjamin Bates. In 1872, St. Peter's church was built in the city. In 1880, Le Messager, a French-language newspaper, began printing in Lewiston to serve its predominant ethnic population. The local Kora Shrine was organized in 1891 and held its first meetings in a Masonic temple on Lisbon Street. This group would from 1908 to 1910 build the Kora Temple on Sabattus Street, the largest home of a fraternal organization in the state.

20th century

At the start of the century, city leaders decided to build a cathedral to which the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland could relocate. Construction of the Church of Saints Peter and Paul began in 1905 and ended in 1938, funded mostly through thousands of small donations from Lewiston residents. It is the largest Roman Catholic Church in Maine and the city's most prominent landmark.

In 1937, one of the largest labor disputes in Maine history occurred in Lewiston and Auburn, lasting from March to June and at its peak involved 4,000 to 5,000 workers. Governor Lewis Barrows sent in the Maine Army National Guard to quell the protestors. Some labor leaders, among them CIO Secretary Powers Hapgood, were imprisoned for months after the Maine Supreme Judicial Court issued an injunction seeking to end the strike. After World War I, profits from the textile industry in New England mill towns such as Lewiston began to decline. From the 1950s, Lewiston's textile mills began closing which led to widespread economic decline and emigration out of the city. The population began to slowly decline after 1970, decreasing at a greater rate in the 1990s. In May 1965, Lewiston became the venue for a heavyweight title rematch between Muhammad Ali and Sonny Liston; Ali had defeated Liston in a controversial fight in Miami Beach, Florida, in February 1964, and the World Boxing Council was demanding an immediate rematch. Sixty years later, a statue of Ali would be unveiled in Lewiston to commemorate the match.

21st century Since the 2000s, the city has passed a variety of laws and economic initiatives aimed at urban renewal. Infrastructure development was announced in May 2004 with demolishing several blocks of 19th-century millworker housing using federal Community Development Block Grant funds. Lewiston earned a 2007 All-America City Award designation by the National Civic League.

During this time, Lewiston's affordable housing initiatives attracted refugees from Somalia migrating due to the Somali Civil War. From the mid-2000s onward, ethnic Somalis migrated to the former mill town, and after 2005, many Somali Bantus, a separate ethnicity, followed suit."The New Yankees" , Mother Jones, March/April 2004 This initially created social tension with city's existing population. In August 2010, the Lewiston Sun Journal reported that Somali entrepreneurs had helped reinvigorate downtown by opening shops in previously closed storefronts.Somali stores bring people back to Lisbon Street Lewiston Sun-Journal, August 30, 2010

In October 2023, on the outskirts of Lewiston, a spree shooting occurred at two locations where 18 people were killed, and 13 others were injured. It was the deadliest mass shooting in the history of Maine. In January 2026, U.S. federal agencies, including immigration enforcement (ICE), carried out raids within the city's Somali population. In line with broader federal raids against Somalis in Maine, the economy of Lewiston was negatively impacted. As a sanctuary city, protests against ICE from Lewiston residents followed.

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which is land and is water. Lewiston is drained by the Androscoggin River, which forms its western border. The city is bordered by Auburn beyond the river, as well as the towns of Greene, Sabattus, and Lisbon. It is halfway between Portland, the state's largest city and cultural center, and the state capital of Augusta.

Climate Lewiston has a humid continental climate, with very significant temperature variation throughout the year. Summers are usually short, warm, and humid, while winters tend to be very cold, long, and snowy. Lewiston averages of snow annually, although this number varies greatly from winter to winter. Snow tends to be the dominant form of precipitation between late November and late March, although freezing rain, sleet, and rain can also occur in the winter when large low pressure systems track directly over or west of the city. Summer in Lewiston typically consists of pleasant temperatures, although high humidity can make the temperature feel more uncomfortable at times. Severe summertime storms, such as tornadoes and tropical cyclones are rare.

Demographics

Racial and ethnic composition