The Dominican Block is an historic multifunction building at 141-145 Lincoln Street in
Lewiston, Maine
Lewiston (; ; officially the City of Lewiston, Maine) is the second largest city in Maine and the most central city in Androscoggin County. The city lies halfway between Augusta, the state's capital, and Portland, the state's most populous cit ...
. The
Queen Anne style block was built in 1882 to a design by the noted local architect
George M. Coombs, and was for many years one of the primary social centers for the city's burgeoning French-American community. It was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artist ...
in 1980.
Description and history
The Dominican Block is set at the southwest corner of Lincoln and Chestnut Streets, not far from Lewiston's mill complexes. It is a -story structure built out of brick with granite trim. It has two storefronts, separated by piers of alternating brick and granite banding, with an entrance to the upper floors projecting to their left. Above each storefront windows are grouped in threes as the piers continue up to the fourth floor. The half-story at the top consists of a raised central section three bays wide, with an ornate brickwork pediment and round-arch windows in the outer bays.
The building was designed by local architect
George M. Coombs and built in 1882. It is architecturally a well-preserved local example of Queen Anne Revival executed in brick, and is stylistically similar to other buildings Coombs designed in Lewiston and elsewhere. It was built by the local
Dominican Order
The Order of Preachers ( la, Ordo Praedicatorum) abbreviated OP, also known as the Dominicans, is a Catholic mendicant order of Pontifical Right for men founded in Toulouse, France, by the Spanish priest, saint and mystic Dominic of C ...
to house a variety of social and community services to the city's growing French Catholic population. The area it was built in was known as "Little
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tota ...
" at the time, and the building was described by a local newspaper as almost a
city hall
In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or a municipal building (in the Philippines), is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses ...
for the local French-speaking population. When opened, the Dominicans operated a school (providing both religious and secular instruction) on the premises, and it was used for worship, community meetings, and theatrical performances. The building has been in private ownership for many years, converted to more typical business and social functions.
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See also
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References
{{National Register of Historic Places
Commercial buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Maine
Buildings and structures in Lewiston, Maine
Commercial buildings completed in 1882
National Register of Historic Places in Lewiston, Maine