Iron, Steam, and Waterpower: The Lewiston Machine Works and the Industrialization of the Androscoggin Valley

In the roar of furnaces and the rhythm of iron hammers, the Lewiston Machine Works forged the machinery that kept the Androscoggin Valley’s mills alive. Here, molten metal was cast into gears, turbines, and cotton-mill machinery that powered the great textile factories along the Androscoggin River. Skilled machinists and foundry workers shaped the iron backbone of industrial Lewiston and Auburn, keeping looms turning and engines running day and night. Though largely forgotten today, the Lewiston Machine Works helped drive the rise of one of New England’s most important manufacturing regions.

Introduction

The Lewiston Machine Works, established during the early 1870s in Lewiston, Maine, was an important industrial enterprise serving the rapidly expanding manufacturing economy of the Androscoggin River valley. During the second half of the nineteenth century Lewiston emerged as one of Maine’s principal industrial cities, dominated by large textile mills and related manufacturing industries that relied on the waterpower of the Androscoggin River. Within this industrial environment machine shops and foundries such as the Lewiston Machine Works played a crucial supporting role by producing and repairing the machinery required for textile manufacturing, paper production, and other forms of mechanized industry.¹

Located within Lewiston’s growing industrial district near the city’s canal system and railroad depots, the Lewiston Machine Works manufactured a wide range of mechanical equipment including iron castings, turbines, and specialized textile machinery. These products served the city’s large textile factories as well as industrial enterprises throughout Maine and northern New England.²

The development of the Lewiston Machine Works reflects broader trends in nineteenth-century American industrialization. As factory production expanded, specialized engineering firms emerged to design, manufacture, and maintain the complex mechanical systems required for industrial manufacturing. Machine shops became indispensable components of industrial cities, linking skilled mechanical labor with the needs of rapidly growing manufacturing enterprises.³

Early Ownership and Development

The enterprise that later became known as the Lewiston Machine Works originated as the Lewiston Machine Company, incorporated on February 4, 1865. The company was organized by several prominent Lewiston businessmen and industrial investors who recognized the growing demand for locally produced industrial machinery and engineering services.⁴

Soon after its incorporation the company acquired the tools and machinery of an earlier engineering establishment known as the Hill machine shop. This purchase allowed the new corporation to begin operations immediately using existing equipment and experienced workers familiar with machine-building techniques.⁵

The machinery from the Hill shop was transferred to a larger foundry building located near the Maine Central Railroad depot. The building had originally been constructed around 1852 and underwent substantial enlargement during the 1860s, with major additions completed in 1865 and 1866. The interior was remodeled again in 1868 in order to accommodate larger industrial machinery and improved production systems.⁶

By the early 1870s the works had developed into one of the most substantial engineering establishments in Maine, producing iron castings and mechanical equipment used in textile mills, paper mills, and other manufacturing enterprises throughout the region.⁷

Ownership Timeline and Industrial Expansion

The development of the Lewiston Machine Works occurred in several phases that paralleled the growth of Lewiston’s industrial economy.

The Lewiston Machine Company (1865–c.1873) established the original foundry and machine shop and began producing mechanical equipment for textile mills along the Androscoggin River. During this early phase the company manufactured iron and brass castings and repaired industrial machinery used by nearby factories.⁸

By the 1870s the enterprise became widely known as the Lewiston Machine Works (c.1873–early twentieth century). During this period the factory expanded its operations significantly and specialized in the production of cotton-mill machinery, steam-engine components, turbines, and heavy iron castings. By the late nineteenth century the works employed approximately two hundred workers and maintained a monthly payroll of roughly ten thousand dollars, making it one of the largest engineering establishments in Maine.⁹

During the early twentieth century the company continued to supply industrial equipment and repair services to mills throughout the region. However, increasing competition from large national machinery manufacturers gradually reduced the market for locally produced industrial machines, leading the company to focus more heavily on repair work and replacement parts.¹⁰

Industrial Operations and Machinery

The Lewiston Machine Works functioned as both a machine shop and an iron foundry. Raw iron was melted in furnaces and poured into molds prepared on the foundry floor. After cooling, the castings were transferred to the machine shop where skilled machinists shaped them into finished mechanical components.¹¹

The facility contained a variety of machine tools typical of late nineteenth-century engineering establishments, including lathes, planers, milling machines, and drill presses. These machines allowed workers to produce gears, shafts, pulleys, and other components required for industrial machinery.¹²

Pattern makers constructed wooden models used to create molds for casting iron parts. These patterns were essential for producing identical machine components and represented a specialized craft within the foundry industry.¹³

The works produced iron and brass castings as well as mechanical equipment used in textile mills, waterpower systems, and steam engines. Through these activities the Lewiston Machine Works became an important supplier of industrial machinery throughout the Androscoggin River valley.¹⁴

Workforce and Working Conditions

The Lewiston Machine Works employed a skilled workforce composed of machinists, pattern makers, foundry workers, and general laborers. Machine-building industries required specialized technical knowledge, and many workers learned their trade through apprenticeships or years of practical experience in engineering shops.¹⁵

Foundry work was particularly demanding. Workers managed furnaces capable of melting iron at extremely high temperatures and handled heavy molds and castings. These tasks exposed laborers to intense heat and considerable physical strain.¹⁶

Lewiston’s industrial workforce during the late nineteenth century included many French Canadian immigrants who had migrated from Québec to New England seeking employment in textile mills and related industries. Although the majority worked in textile factories, some found employment in machine shops and engineering works within the city’s industrial economy.¹⁷

Despite the difficult working conditions, skilled mechanical trades often offered higher wages and greater stability than unskilled factory labor. As a result, employment in machine shops attracted workers seeking technical training and long-term industrial careers.¹⁸

Twentieth-Century Operations and Decline

During the early twentieth century the Lewiston Machine Works continued to supply mechanical components and repair services for local factories. However, broader technological and economic changes gradually altered the structure of the American machinery industry.¹⁹

Large manufacturing companies increasingly produced standardized machinery in centralized factories capable of supplying national markets. Smaller regional machine-building firms found it difficult to compete with these larger producers and increasingly shifted toward repair and maintenance work.²⁰

The decline of Lewiston’s textile industry during the mid-twentieth century further reduced demand for local engineering services. As mills closed or modernized their equipment, the network of supporting industries—including machine shops and foundries—experienced declining business activity.²¹

Although the precise closure date of the Lewiston Machine Works remains uncertain, the enterprise likely disappeared during the early twentieth century as these economic changes reshaped the region’s industrial economy. Nevertheless, its history illustrates the important role played by machine-building firms in supporting Maine’s manufacturing industries during the late nineteenth century.²²

Founders and Corporate Officers

The Lewiston Machine Company was incorporated in 1865 by Samuel W. Kilvert, Josiah G. Coburn, Nathaniel W. Farwell, David M. Ayer, and Rhodes A. Budlong. These individuals were prominent members of Lewiston’s business community and were closely associated with the city’s industrial development.²³

Their investment in a machine-building enterprise reflected the growing demand for engineering services in a city whose economy was increasingly dominated by large textile mills. By establishing a local foundry and machine shop, these entrepreneurs helped create an industrial infrastructure capable of supporting the expansion of Lewiston’s manufacturing sector.²⁴

Site Location and Sanborn Map References

The Lewiston Machine Works stood in the industrial district near the Maine Central Railroad depot and the canal system that supplied waterpower to the city’s textile mills. This area developed during the nineteenth century as a cluster of machine shops, warehouses, and foundries supporting Lewiston’s manufacturing economy.²⁵

Sanborn fire insurance maps from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries depict large industrial buildings in this district labeled as machine shops, foundries, and pattern shops. These maps indicate the presence of furnaces, casting floors, and machine rooms associated with engineering works such as the Lewiston Machine Works.²⁶

The proximity of the site to both rail transportation and the canal system allowed heavy materials to be transported efficiently to and from the factory while also placing the works within convenient distance of the textile mills that relied upon its machinery and repair services.²⁷

Connections to Bates Mill and the Androscoggin Mill

The Lewiston Machine Works operated within an industrial network created by the Lewiston Water Power Company, which developed the canal and dam system at the Great Falls of the Androscoggin River during the mid-nineteenth century. This waterpower system supported large textile factories including the Bates Manufacturing Company and the Androscoggin Mill.²⁸

Machine shops such as the Lewiston Machine Works were essential to the operation of these factories. Textile mills depended on extensive mechanical systems including turbines, line shafts, gears, looms, and spinning machinery. Because these machines operated continuously and experienced heavy wear, local engineering firms were needed to manufacture replacement parts and perform repairs.²⁹

The Lewiston Machine Works produced iron and brass castings and cotton-mill machinery used in these systems, helping maintain the operation of the Bates mills and other factories throughout the Androscoggin River valley.³⁰

This close relationship between machine shops and textile mills was characteristic of nineteenth-century industrial cities, where engineering firms provided the mechanical infrastructure required for large-scale factory production.³¹

Footnotes

1. Charles Scontras, Maine in the Industrial Age, 1860–1920 (Orono: University of Maine Bureau of Labor Education, 2006), 72–76.

2. Douglas I. Hodgkin, Lewiston: The First Century (Lewiston, ME: Lewiston Historical Commission, 1993), 118–121.

3. Robert G. Doyle, The Industrial History of Maine (Orono: University of Maine Press, 1982), 162–165.

4. History of Androscoggin County, Maine (Philadelphia: D. W. Ensign & Co., 1891), 629–631.

5. Ibid., 630.

6. Ibid., 631.

7. Doyle, Industrial History of Maine, 167–169.

8. Ibid., 170–172.

9. History of Androscoggin County, Maine, 631.

10. Scontras, Maine in the Industrial Age, 140–142.

11. Doyle, Industrial History of Maine, 175–177.

12. John H. Lienhard, Inventing Modern (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003), 58–61.

13. Doyle, Industrial History of Maine, 178–180.

14. Ibid., 181–182.

15. Scontras, Maine in the Industrial Age, 126–128.

16. Ibid., 130–132.

17. Gerard J. Brault, The French-Canadian Heritage in New England (Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 1986), 78–80.

18. Scontras, Maine in the Industrial Age, 132–134.

19. Hodgkin, Lewiston: The First Century, 146–148.

20. Doyle, Industrial History of Maine, 182–184.

21. Scontras, Maine in the Industrial Age, 150–152.

22. Doyle, Industrial History of Maine, 186–188.

23. History of Androscoggin County, Maine, 629–631.

24. Doyle, Industrial History of Maine, 165–167.

25. Hodgkin, Lewiston: The First Century, 122–125.

26. Sanborn Map Company, Insurance Maps of Lewiston, Maine (New York: Sanborn Map Company, 1885–1912).

27. Hodgkin, Lewiston: The First Century, 126–128.

28. Doyle, Industrial History of Maine, 150–154.

29. Scontras, Maine in the Industrial Age, 90–95.

30. Doyle, Industrial History of Maine, 170–173.

31. Hodgkin, Lewiston: The First Century, 118–120.

32. Scontras, Maine in the Industrial Age, 84–88.

33. Doyle, Industrial History of Maine, 175–177.

34. Brault, French-Canadian Heritage, 80–82.

35. Scontras, Maine in the Industrial Age, 140–145.

36. Hodgkin, Lewiston: The First Century, 152–155.

Bibliography

Brault, Gerard J. The French-Canadian Heritage in New England. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 1986.

Doyle, Robert G. The Industrial History of Maine. Orono: University of Maine Press, 1982.

Hodgkin, Douglas I. Lewiston: The First Century. Lewiston, ME: Lewiston Historical Commission, 1993.

Lienhard, John H. Inventing Modern: Growing Up with X-Rays, Skyscrapers, and Tailfins. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003.

Sanborn Map Company. Insurance Maps of Lewiston, Maine. New York: Sanborn Map Company, 1885–1912.

Scontras, Charles. Maine in the Industrial Age, 1860–1920. Orono: University of Maine Bureau of Labor Education, 2006.

History of Androscoggin County, Maine. Philadelphia: D. W. Ensign & Co., 1891.

The Expansion and Reorganization of the Avon Manufacturing Company of Lewiston, Maine: Evidence from Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps, 1882–1914

Introduction

The Avon Manufacturing Company occupies an important but comparatively understudied place in the industrial history of Lewiston, Maine. While the city’s textile history is often dominated by the large corporations that operated massive cotton mills along the Androscoggin River, smaller firms such as Avon played an important role in the development of specialized textile production. Avon manufactured cotton goods including quilts, bedspreads, towels, and other woven products, and by the early twentieth century had developed a complex manufacturing system involving spinning, weaving, bleaching, finishing, quilting, and packing operations.¹

Much of the existing discussion of Avon Manufacturing has focused on the company’s products and general importance within Lewiston’s textile economy. However, the physical development of the company’s mills has been less clearly documented. Contemporary Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps provide a detailed record of Avon’s expansion and reveal a more complicated history than a simple single-mill narrative. These maps demonstrate that Avon developed multiple manufacturing facilities, acquired additional industrial property, and reorganized the functions and numbering of its mills between 1902 and 1914.²

The Sanborn record also corrects assumptions about the location of Avon’s facilities. Although later histories sometimes associate Avon with specific mill locations from its earliest years, the maps show that the company’s documented twentieth-century expansion involved two separate industrial areas: the Locust and Lincoln Street complex and the former Lewiston Machine Company property at West Bates and Spring Streets.³

Avon Manufacturing Before the Twentieth Century

Avon Manufacturing Company was established during a period of rapid industrial growth in Lewiston. The company joined a growing group of textile manufacturers that benefited from the city’s water power, transportation connections, skilled workforce, and established industrial infrastructure. Contemporary descriptions identify Avon as a manufacturer of specialized cotton goods rather than a producer of basic cotton sheeting on the scale of the city’s largest corporations.⁴

By the 1890s Avon had become an established textile producer. A Lewiston centennial publication described the company as manufacturing quilts and towels and identified its officers, production capacity, and workforce. The company’s operations included numerous looms and employed local workers involved in the manufacture of finished cotton goods.⁵

However, the exact location and development of Avon’s early physical facilities require careful examination. Sanborn maps provide the most reliable evidence for determining when particular buildings were occupied and what functions they served.

The West Bates Street property demonstrates the importance of this approach. The February 1882 Sanborn map identifies the corner of West Bates and Spring Streets as occupied by the Lewiston Machine Company.⁶ The November 1886 map continues to show Lewiston Machine Company at the same location.⁷ The April 1897 edition again identifies the property as Lewiston Machine Company.⁸

These maps establish that Avon was not operating at the West Bates and Spring Street location during the nineteenth century. The property remained associated with machinery manufacturing until sometime after 1902.

The Locust and Lincoln Street Complex, 1902–1908

The development of Avon’s Locust and Lincoln Street property marks the beginning of a major expansion phase. The April 1897 Sanborn map shows the parcel at Locust and Lincoln Streets as vacant. Nearby industrial properties included the Little Androscoggin Mill, its tail race outlet and pond, and the Cumberland Woolen Mill, but no Avon manufacturing buildings were identified on that parcel.⁹

By November 1902, however, the situation had changed significantly. The Sanborn map identifies the location as:

Avon Manufacturing Co.
Cotton & Weaving Mill
Mill No. 1
Mill No. 2¹⁰

This map provides important evidence that Avon had established a substantial manufacturing complex at Locust and Lincoln Streets by the beginning of the twentieth century. The designation of two numbered mills indicates that the company was already operating more than one building or production unit at this location.

The 1902 map also clarifies that Avon’s expansion occurred before its acquisition of the West Bates Street property. At that date, the former Lewiston Machine Company buildings at West Bates and Spring Streets remained occupied by Lewiston Machine Company.¹¹ Therefore, Avon’s early twentieth-century expansion began at the Locust and Lincoln Street site rather than through immediate takeover of the machine works.

The February 1908 Sanborn map provides an even more detailed picture of Avon’s operations. The Locust and Lincoln Street complex had developed into a highly integrated textile manufacturing plant. Mill No. 1 contained weaving operations on the first floor, while the second floor was devoted to cloth finishing and packing.¹²

Additional buildings expanded the range of production activities. Bleaching Room No. 1 included bleach finishing on the first floor and a carpet department on the second floor. Bleaching Room No. 2 contained bleaching operations on the first floor and dry cans on the second floor.¹³ These facilities demonstrate that Avon was not simply weaving purchased material but was controlling several stages of production within its own plant.

The attached Mill No. 2 further illustrates the complexity of the operation. According to the 1908 Sanborn map, this building contained storage, weaving, quilting, spinning, and winding operations on the first floor, with additional weaving space on the second floor.¹⁴

The arrangement of these departments indicates a vertically integrated textile operation. Raw materials could be processed through multiple stages within the Avon complex:

• spinning and winding,

• weaving,

• quilting,

• bleaching,

• drying,

• finishing,

• and packing.

This organization allowed Avon to maintain control over production quality and scheduling while reducing dependence on outside contractors.

Acquisition of the Former Lewiston Machine Company Property

The next stage in Avon’s development involved expansion into the West Bates and Spring Street property. The Sanborn record provides a clear transition.

In November 1902, the property remained identified as Lewiston Machine Company.¹⁵ By February 1908, the same location was listed as Avon Manufacturing Company.¹⁶ This establishes that Avon acquired or began operating the former machine works sometime between those two dates.

The acquisition of the West Bates property reflects a common pattern in New England industrial development. Existing industrial buildings were often adapted for new purposes rather than replaced. A factory originally designed for machinery production could be modified for textile operations, allowing manufacturers to expand more economically.

At first, the West Bates facility was not assigned a mill number on the 1908 Sanborn map. This suggests that Avon initially treated it as an additional manufacturing location rather than immediately incorporating it into the numbered mill system used at Locust and Lincoln Streets.¹⁷

The later designation of this building as Spinning Mill No. 2 in 1914 indicates that the company eventually reorganized its facilities and assigned specific functions to individual locations.

The 1914 Reorganization: Mill No. 1 and Spinning Mill No. 2

By 1914, the Sanborn maps show that Avon Manufacturing Company had completed a significant reorganization of its physical plant. The company was no longer represented as a single integrated complex with multiple departments concentrated at one location. Instead, production had been divided between two identified facilities with specialized functions.

The Locust and Lincoln Street property was identified as:

Avon Manufacturing Co.
Cotton Weaving Mill No. 1¹⁸

The former Lewiston Machine Company property at West Bates and Spring Streets was identified as:

Avon Manufacturing Co.
Spinning Mill No. 2¹⁹

This division of operations reveals a more advanced manufacturing organization. By separating spinning and weaving functions, Avon could dedicate each building to specialized equipment and production methods. The West Bates facility prepared yarn through spinning operations, while the Locust and Lincoln Street mill concentrated on weaving and related finishing processes.

The change in mill designation is one of the most significant findings revealed by the Sanborn record. In November 1902, the Locust and Lincoln Street property contained both Mill No. 1 and Mill No. 2.²⁰ The February 1908 map likewise identifies an attached Mill No. 2 within the Locust and Lincoln complex.²¹ By 1914, however, the West Bates Street property had become Spinning Mill No. 2.²²

The reason for this change is not directly explained by the Sanborn maps. Several possibilities exist. Avon may have reassigned the number after acquiring the West Bates property, or the earlier attached Mill No. 2 may have been absorbed administratively into Mill No. 1 as the company reorganized production. It is also possible that the Sanborn designation reflected a corporate naming system rather than a strict chronological numbering of buildings.

Regardless of the administrative reason, the maps demonstrate that Avon’s internal organization changed between 1908 and 1914. The company expanded from a concentrated textile complex into a coordinated multi-building manufacturing system.

Avon Manufacturing Within Lewiston’s Textile Economy

The development of Avon Manufacturing reflects larger patterns in Lewiston’s industrial history. The city’s textile economy was built around large corporations such as Bates Manufacturing Company and Androscoggin Mills, but smaller companies like Avon contributed significantly to the diversity and resilience of the local manufacturing base.

Avon’s specialization in finished cotton goods allowed it to occupy a distinct position within the industry. Products such as quilts, bedspreads, towels, and other household textiles required extensive finishing processes beyond ordinary cloth production. The company’s investment in bleaching, quilting, and finishing departments demonstrates an effort to control the complete manufacturing process.

The company also benefited from Lewiston’s industrial infrastructure. The city’s canal system, transportation network, and concentration of experienced textile workers created conditions that allowed firms like Avon to expand. The conversion of the former Lewiston Machine Company property illustrates how existing industrial resources could be adapted as economic conditions changed.

The workforce behind these operations was also part of Lewiston’s broader social history. Like other textile manufacturers in the city, Avon depended heavily on immigrant labor, especially workers from the French-Canadian community that developed around the mills. These workers provided the specialized skills necessary to operate spinning frames, looms, finishing equipment, and other textile machinery.

The company’s expansion during the early twentieth century occurred during a period of both opportunity and increasing competition. New England textile manufacturers faced growing pressure from southern mills with newer facilities and lower operating costs. Companies that survived often did so by specializing, improving efficiency, and reorganizing their production systems. Avon’s separation of spinning and weaving operations by 1914 reflects this broader industrial response.

The Importance of Sanborn Maps in Reconstructing Avon’s History

The Avon Manufacturing Company example demonstrates why Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps are valuable historical sources. Written histories often emphasize corporate origins, ownership, and production figures, but they rarely provide detailed information about how factories functioned internally. The Sanborn maps fill this gap.

The map sequence from 1882 through 1914 allows historians to follow Avon’s development step by step:

• West Bates and Spring Streets remained the Lewiston Machine Company property through 1902.

• The Locust and Lincoln Street complex developed into Avon’s major textile facility by 1902.

• By 1908, Avon had acquired the former machine works and expanded its manufacturing space.

• By 1914, the company operated specialized facilities identified as Cotton Weaving Mill No. 1 and Spinning Mill No. 2.

This evidence changes the interpretation of Avon’s history. Rather than a small company operating a single mill, Avon emerges as an expanding textile manufacturer with multiple locations and a sophisticated production system.

Conclusion

The history of the Avon Manufacturing Company demonstrates the importance of examining industrial development through primary evidence rather than relying only on later summaries. Although Avon was a smaller participant in Lewiston’s textile economy compared with the city’s largest corporations, it developed into a complex manufacturing enterprise with multiple buildings, specialized departments, and a carefully organized production system.

The Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps provide the clearest documentation of this transformation. They show that Avon’s major documented twentieth-century expansion began at the Locust and Lincoln Street complex. By November 1902, the company operated a Cotton & Weaving Mill consisting of Mill No. 1 and Mill No. 2. By February 1908, this complex contained an extensive range of operations, including weaving, spinning, winding, quilting, bleaching, finishing, drying, storage, and packing.

The maps also establish that the West Bates and Spring Street property followed a separate historical path. The location remained occupied by Lewiston Machine Company through November 1902, but by February 1908 it had become part of Avon Manufacturing Company. By 1914, this facility had been designated Spinning Mill No. 2, while the Locust and Lincoln Street complex had become Cotton Weaving Mill No. 1.

This sequence reveals a pattern of expansion and reorganization rather than simple continuity. Avon adapted existing industrial property, reassigned production functions, and reorganized its mill numbering as its manufacturing needs changed. The company’s transition from an integrated single-location operation toward specialized spinning and weaving facilities reflects broader trends within the New England textile industry during the early twentieth century.

The evidence also demonstrates that industrial landscapes were constantly changing. Buildings constructed for one purpose could be transformed for another, and company identities could shift within the same physical spaces. The former Lewiston Machine Company property becoming part of Avon’s textile system is one example of how industrial districts evolved through reuse and adaptation.

Future research using property deeds, city directories, corporate records, and local newspapers may provide additional details concerning the exact date Avon acquired the West Bates property, the reasons for the mill numbering changes, and the later history of the buildings. However, the Sanborn maps alone establish a firm foundation for understanding Avon’s expansion.

The Avon Manufacturing Company was therefore not simply a small cotton mill operating on the margins of Lewiston’s industrial history. By the early twentieth century, it had become a significant textile manufacturer operating multiple facilities with specialized functions. Its story contributes to a fuller understanding of Lewiston’s industrial development and illustrates how careful examination of primary sources can reveal important details overlooked in traditional accounts.

Footnotes

1. Turner’s Centennial Souvenir Program of Lewiston’s One Hundredth Anniversary (Lewiston, ME, 1895), entry for Avon Manufacturing Company.

2. Sanborn Map Company, Insurance Maps of Lewiston, Maine, February 1882, Sheet 11; November 1886, Sheet 9; April 1897, Sheets 12 and 17; November 1902, Sheets 5 and 25; February 1908, Sheets 4 and 25; 1914, Sheets 2 and 26.

3. Sanborn Map Company, Insurance Maps of Lewiston, Maine, November 1902, Sheet 5; February 1908, Sheet 4.

4. Henry C. Dorr, The Industries of Maine: Reports on the Manufacturing, Agricultural, and Other Industrial Resources of the State (Augusta: Kennebec Journal Print, 1887), section on Avon Manufacturing Company.

5. Turner’s Centennial Souvenir Program of Lewiston’s One Hundredth Anniversary, entry for Avon Manufacturing Company.

6. Sanborn Map Company, Insurance Maps of Lewiston, Maine, February 1882, Sheet 11.

7. Sanborn Map Company, Insurance Maps of Lewiston, Maine, November 1886, Sheet 9.

8. Sanborn Map Company, Insurance Maps of Lewiston, Maine, April 1897, Sheet 17.

9. Sanborn Map Company, Insurance Maps of Lewiston, Maine, April 1897, Sheet 12.

10. Sanborn Map Company, Insurance Maps of Lewiston, Maine, November 1902, Sheet 25.

11. Sanborn Map Company, Insurance Maps of Lewiston, Maine, November 1902, Sheet 5.

12. Sanborn Map Company, Insurance Maps of Lewiston, Maine, February 1908, Sheet 25.

13. Ibid.

14. Ibid.

15. Sanborn Map Company, Insurance Maps of Lewiston, Maine, November 1902, Sheet 5.

16. Sanborn Map Company, Insurance Maps of Lewiston, Maine, February 1908, Sheet 4.

17. Ibid.

18. Sanborn Map Company, Insurance Maps of Lewiston, Maine, 1914, Sheet 26.

19. Sanborn Map Company, Insurance Maps of Lewiston, Maine, 1914, Sheet 2.

20. Sanborn Map Company, Insurance Maps of Lewiston, Maine, November 1902, Sheet 25.

21. Sanborn Map Company, Insurance Maps of Lewiston, Maine, February 1908, Sheet 25.

22. Sanborn Map Company, Insurance Maps of Lewiston, Maine, 1914, Sheet 2.

Bibliography

Dorr, Henry C. The Industries of Maine: Reports on the Manufacturing, Agricultural, and Other Industrial Resources of the State. Augusta: Kennebec Journal Print, 1887.

History of Androscoggin County, Maine. Philadelphia: D. Mason & Co., 1891.

Sanborn Map Company. Insurance Maps of Lewiston, Maine. February 1882.

———. Insurance Maps of Lewiston, Maine. November 1886.

———. Insurance Maps of Lewiston, Maine. April 1897.

———. Insurance Maps of Lewiston, Maine. November 1902.

———. Insurance Maps of Lewiston, Maine. February 1908.

———. Insurance Maps of Lewiston, Maine. 1914.

Turner’s Centennial Souvenir Program of Lewiston’s One Hundredth Anniversary. Lewiston, Maine, 1895.

United States Department of Labor. Reports on the Condition of Woman and Child Wage-Earners in the United States, Volume 9: Cotton Textile Industry. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1910.