Edward Little High School is a public high school in

Auburn, Maine Auburn is a city in south-central Maine, within the United States. Settled in the foothills of the Western Lakes and Mountains region of the state, The city serves as the county seat of Androscoggin County, Maine, Androscoggin County. The popul ...

, United States. The school was established in 1835 as Lewiston Falls Academy after philanthropist Edward Little donated and considerable money to the academy, which was named in his honor. The school is now situated on a tract of land overlooking the city from the top of Goff Hill in Auburn Heights.

History

19th century

The school was first commissioned by the Maine State Legislature as Lewiston Falls Academy. Little contributed numerous resources to the school, including land and money. It was renamed to the Edward Little Institute in September 1849. When the City of Auburn was given control over the school in April 1874, it came with the condition that the school always be named in honor of Edward Little. In December 1884, the school was damaged by a fire. Newspaper accounts reported the building that cost $18,000 to build was insured for $6,000. The school suffered another fire this one destroyed the entire third floor in 1943.

20th century

In the early 1930s, a second building was erected. In 1961, the building formerly used as Edward Little High School was completed at a cost of US$1.9 million.

21st century

In June 2009, the school was placed on probation by the

New England Association of Schools and Colleges The New England Association of Schools and Colleges, Inc. (NEASC ) is an American educational organization that accredits private and public secondary schools (high schools and technical/career institutions), primarily in New England. It also ...

. Reasons cited for this probation included "the poor and inadequate condition of the school's kitchen facility...the insufficient heating system," and low funding for educational resources and technology. In 2023, the construction of a replacement building reached completion, opening for the 2023-24 school year. The former building has since been demolished.

Athletics

The school's sports teams are known as the Red Eddies, with the

ghost In folklore, a ghost is the soul or Spirit (supernatural entity), spirit of a dead Human, person or non-human animal that is believed by some people to be able to appear to the living. In ghostlore, descriptions of ghosts vary widely, from a ...

of Edward Little as their mascot. The school competes as a member of the

Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference The Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference (KVAC) is a high school athletic organization, featuring schools from the towns that surround the Kennebec River in the state of Maine Maine ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of t ...

. The school's most successful teams in recent years include Alpine ski racing, soccer,

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

, and

track and field Track and field (or athletics in British English) is a sport that includes Competition#Sports, athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name used in North America is derived from where the sport takes place, a ru ...

. Other sports include

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

cheerleading Cheerleading is an activity in which the participants (called cheerleaders) cheer for their team as a form of encouragement. It can range from chanting slogans to intense Physical exercise, physical activity. It can be performed to motivate s ...

cross country running Cross country running is a sport in which teams and individuals run a race on open-air courses over natural terrain such as dirt or grass. The course, typically long, may include surfaces of grass and soil, earth, pass through woodlands and ope ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

lacrosse Lacrosse is a contact team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game w ...

swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, such as saltwater or freshwater environments, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Swimmers achieve locomotion by coordinating limb and body movements to achieve hydrody ...

ice Ice is water that is frozen into a solid state, typically forming at or below temperatures of 0 ° C, 32 ° F, or 273.15 K. It occurs naturally on Earth, on other planets, in Oort cloud objects, and as interstellar ice. As a naturally oc ...

and

field hockey Field hockey (or simply referred to as hockey in some countries where ice hockey is not popular) is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with 11 players in total, made up of 10 field players and a goalk ...

, and

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

Notable alumni

* Charles B. Carter, former football player, lawyer, and politician * Alonzo Conant, former municipal court judge * Larry Gowell, former professional baseball pitcher,

New York Yankees The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Am ...

* Gina Melaragno, member,

Maine House of Representatives The Maine House of Representatives is the lower house of the Maine Legislature. The House consists of 151 voting members and three nonvoting members. The voting members represent an equal number of districts across the state and are elected via ...

Bert Roberge Bertrand Roland Roberge (born October 3, 1954) is an American former professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball for the Houston Astros, Chicago White Sox, and Montreal Expos from 1979 through 1986. Amateur career A native ...

, former professional baseball player,

Chicago White Sox The Chicago White Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The White Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League Central, Central Division. The club plays its ...

Houston Astros The Houston Astros are an American professional baseball team based in Houston. The Astros compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League West, West Division. They are one of two major leag ...

, and

Montreal Expos The Montreal Expos () were a Canadian professional baseball team based in Montreal. The Expos were the first Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise located outside the United States. They played in the National League (baseball), National League ...

* Luke Robinson, professional wrestler * Dave Rowe,

folk music Folk music is a music genre that includes #Traditional folk music, traditional folk music and the Contemporary folk music, contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be ca ...

musician * Tom Rowe, folk musician *

Billy Silverman William Daley (born February 21, 1962) better known by his ring name Billy Silverman, is an American professional wrestling referee who worked for World Championship Wrestling and the World Wrestling Federation and later World Wrestling Entert ...

, professional wrestling referee * Charlie Small, former professional baseball player,

Boston Red Sox The Boston Red Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Boston. The Red Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League East, East Division. Founded in as one of the Ameri ...

Olympia Snowe Olympia Jean Snowe (; born February 21, 1947) is an American businesswoman and politician who was a United States Senate, United States Senator, representing Maine for three terms from 1995 to 2013. A lifelong member of the Republican Party (Unit ...

, former

U.S. Senator The United States Senate is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and House have the authority under Article One of the ...

and

U.S. Representative The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Article One of th ...

Peter Snowe Peter Trafton Snowe (January 16, 1943 – April 10, 1973) was an American politician who served in the Maine House of Representatives from 1967 until his death in a car accident in 1973 at age 30. He was the husband of Olympia Snowe, who we ...

, former member,

* Pamela White, former U.S. ambassador to

Gambia The Gambia, officially the Republic of The Gambia, is a country in West Africa. Geographically, The Gambia is the List of African countries by area, smallest country in continental Africa; it is surrounded by Senegal on all sides except for ...

and

Haiti Haiti, officially the Republic of Haiti, is a country on the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and south of the Bahamas. It occupies the western three-eighths of the island, which it shares with the Dominican ...

* George C. Wing Jr., mayor of Auburn and member, Maine House of Representatives

References

External links

Official website
{{authority control 1834 establishments in Maine Buildings and structures in Auburn, Maine Educational institutions established in 1834 Education in Auburn, Maine Public high schools in Maine Schools in Lewiston–Auburn, Maine