Auburn is a city in Androscoggin County, Maine, United States with a population of 24,061 (as of the 2020 census). It is Androscoggin County's Shire Town. Auburn is located in southwest Maine on the falls of the Androscoggin River across from Lewiston. They are also abbreviated as LA due to the proximity of Lewiston and Auburn.
According to the United States Census Bureau, Auburn has a total area
of 170.27 km², of which 153.66 km² is land and 16.60 km² is water.
Geographical location
Auburn is located in southern Androscoggin
County, on the Cumberland County border. The city is bounded to the east
by the Androscoggin River and to the north by Androscoggin Riverlands
State Park. Two larger lakes, Lake Auburn and Tyler Pond, are to the
north of the City area. The Little Androscoggin River flows through the
town centrally in an easterly direction and empties into the
Androscoggin River at Auburn.
neighboring communities
All
distances are given as the crow flies between the official coordinates
of the 2010 census locations.
North: Turner 4 miles
Northeast:
Greene 12.3 km
East: Lewiston, the twin towns: a few 100 meters east
across the river
Southeast: Durham, 9 miles
South: New Gloucester,
4.5 miles
West: Poland, 16.1 km
Northwest: Mechanic Falls, 11
miles
Larger cities in the wider area are:
Bath, about 45 km
south-east
Auburn is divided into a large number of settlements and villages including: Auburn (actually Lewiston Falls, Goff's Corner, Pekin), Auburn Plains, Barker Mill, Danville, Danville Corner, Dirigo (site of the former post office), East Auburn, East Minot (site of former post office which was outsourced from Minot), Harmons Corner, Haskell Corner, Hacketts (site of former train station), Lewiston Falls (former post office for Auburn), Lewiston Junction, Littlefield Corner, Marstons Corner (Hardscrabble), Nason's Mills (Site of former Post Office), New Auburn, North Auburn, Parsons Mills (Parsons Mill), Penleys Corner (Penley Corner), Rowes Corner (Rowe Corner, Rowe Corners), Rumford Junction, South Danville, Stevens Mill, Thompson Corner, West Auburn, West Danville (later South Auburn, site of former Post Office at Lewiston Junction), Youngs Corner.
The median average temperature in Auburn ranges from −6.1°C (21°F) in January to 21.7°C (71°F) in July. This means that the place is about 10 degrees cooler than the long-term mean of the USA. The snowfall between October and May is more than five and a half meters, almost twice as high as the average snow depth in the USA, the daily sunshine duration is at the lower end of the value spectrum in the USA.
The area around modern day Auburn, Maine was originally part of the
Pejepscot Purchase, land purchased in 1714 by the people of Boston and
Portsmouth pursuant to the Treaty of Portsmouth, which brought peace
between the Abenaki Indians and settlers in present-day Maine. In 1736,
however, the Massachusetts Court of Common Pleas awarded most of this
land to veterans of the Battle of Quebec in 1690. As a result,
settlement was delayed until after the French and Indian War.
Auburn, Maine was first settled in 1786 as part of Bakerstown and
renamed Poland when it was incorporated by the Massachusetts court in
1795. It later became part of Minot, which was formed from a portion of
Poland, and was incorporated in 1802. Auburn was formed from a portion
of Minot and incorporated on February 24, 1842. The name Auburn was
apparently inspired by a village (real or fictional) in the poem "The
Deserted Village" written by Oliver Goldsmith in 1770. Originally part
of Cumberland County, it became the county seat when Androscoggin County
was created in 1854, annexing land from surrounding towns, including
parts of Poland in 1852, Minot in 1873, and all of Danville (originally
called Pejepscot) in 1867, Auburn grew geographically into one of
Maine's largest municipalities; it became a city on February 22, 1869,
and was the first in the state to adopt a council form of government in
1917.
Local farms supplied grain and agricultural products, but
the area developed as a mill town after a bridge was built across the
river to Lewiston in 1823 and especially after the Atlantic and St.
Lawrence Railroad from Portland opened in January 1848. Factories were
built to operate by water power from the Androscoggin and Little
Androscoggin River falls; in 1835, a shoe factory system began in
Auburn. Other products included cotton textiles, woolen goods,
carriages, ironwork, bricks, and furniture; the population in 1860 was
only about 4,000, but by 1890 it had grown to about 12,000, and the shoe
factory attracted many French Canadian immigrants who arrived by train
from Quebec. Steady population growth continued until about 1960, when
the population reached about 24,500.
Shoemaking became a major
industry in Auburn by the late 19th century, and the city emblem, with
different types of shoes on the outside of each spindle, was designed in
the mid-19th century, when Auburn was positioned as the shoemaking
capital of Maine. After World War II, however, the shoe industry began
to decline, and the largest manufacturers closed their factories between
1957 and 1961.
In 1985, a plane crash that claimed the life of
Samantha Smith brought the area into the spotlight.
In 2023, Joe
Biden became the first sitting U.S. president to visit Auburn in 111
years. William Howard Taft visited in 1912.
Lewiston-Auburn Shoe
Strike
In 1937, the largest labor dispute in Maine history took place
in Lewiston and Auburn. The Lewiston-Auburn Shoe Strike lasted from
March through June, with a peak of 4,000 to 5,000 workers on strike.
After workers attempted to march across the Androscoggin River from
Lewiston to Auburn, Governor Lewis Burroughs dispatched the Maine Army
National Guard; some labor leaders, including CIO Secretary Powers
Hapgood, sought an injunction by a Maine Supreme Judicial Court judge to
end the strike. They were imprisoned for several months after a Maine
Supreme Judicial Court judge issued an injunction to end the strike.
Museums
Knight House Museum (1796): The oldest half-timbered house
in town. A shoemaker's shop with furnishings from before 1835 has been
preserved in it.
buildings
In Auburn, two districts and a
number of buildings have been designated National Monuments and are
listed on the National Register of Historic Places:
As a district was
placed under monument protection:
Auburn Commercial Historic
District, surveyed 2014, registry no. 14001087
Main Street Historic
District, surveyed 1989, register no. 89000255
Other buildings:
Androscoggin County Courthouse and Jail, incorporated 1983, register no.
83003633
Auburn Public Library incorporated 1984, register no.
84001357
Barker Mill, recorded 1979, register no. 79000123
William
Briggs Homestead, recorded 1986, register no. 86000477
Charles L.
Cushman House, recorded 1980, register no. 80000210
Danville Junction
Grange #65, recorded 2016, register no. 16000138
Holman Day House,
recorded 1978, register no. 78000155
Frank L. Dingley House, recorded
1980, register no. 80000211
Engine House, recorded 1978, register no.
78000156
First Universalist Church, incorporated 1979, register no.
79000126
Horatio G. Foss House, recorded 1976, register no. 76000084
Free Baptist Church, incorporated 1989, register no. 89000843
A.A.
Garcelon House, recorded 1986, register no. 86001269
Gay-Munroe
House, photographed 2001, register no. 01001422
Irish site,
incorporated 1992, register no. 92001517
Charles A. Jordan House,
recorded 1974, register no. 74000147
FM Jordan Housel, recorded 2014,
register no. 14001088
Lamoreau site, recorded 1989, register no.
89000837
Edward Little House, recorded 1976, register no. 76000086
Horace Munroe House, recorded 1980, register no. 80000213
Roak Block,
recorded 1982, register no. 82000738
William A. Robinson House,
recorded 1993, register no. 93000204
Wilson I Site, recorded 1992,
register no. 92001512
Webster Grammar School, incorporated 2010,
register no. 10000806
Traffic
Auburn and Lewiston are connected by Interstate 95 and a
rail line to central Augusta to the north and to Biddeford and Boston in
Massachusetts to the south. The US Highway 202 runs north-south through
the city.
media
Auburn is supplied with a local newspaper
through a daily newspaper, the "Sun Journal", published in the twin
towns of Lewison.
Education
The entire spectrum of American
schools is represented in Auburn, from elementary schools through
various high schools and colleges to a branch of the University of
Maine.
In 2011, Auburn became the first city in the US to use
iPads extensively as a teaching tool in elementary schools.