The Lewiston Trust and Safe Deposit Company is a historic commercial building at 46 Lisbon Street in

Lewiston, Maine Lewiston (; ) is the List of municipalities in Maine, second most populous city in the U.S. state of Maine, with the city's population at 37,121 as of the 2020 United States census. The city lies halfway between Augusta, Maine, Augusta, the sta ...

. Built in 1898, it is one of the least-altered designs of the important local architectural firm Coombs, Gibbs & Wilkinson. Its only significant alterations were in 1926 and the 1940s, when it served as a retail space occupied by Grant's Clothing for many years. The building was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1986. It continues to house retail and other commercial tenants.

Description and history

The Lewiston Trust and Safe Deposit Company building is located on the east side of Lisbon Street, Lewiston's principal downtown commercial street, between Main and Ash Streets. It is a three-story

masonry Masonry is the craft of building a structure with brick, stone, or similar material, including mortar plastering which are often laid in, bound, and pasted together by mortar (masonry), mortar. The term ''masonry'' can also refer to the buildin ...

structure, with party walls directly abutting the neighboring buildings. Its facade is ashlar granite, with quoined corners and a metal cornice. Its ground floor retail space has a Moderne style recessed entrance with flanking display areas set with black panels above and below, and is topped by a projecting triangular-fronted marquee. The second floor has four sash windows set in round-arch openings. The third floor has a grouping of five narrower windows, with

pilaster In architecture, a pilaster is both a load-bearing section of thickened wall or column integrated into a wall, and a purely decorative element in classical architecture which gives the appearance of a supporting column and articulates an ext ...

s separating the windows of the group and an entablature above. The Lewiston Trust Company commissioned the construction of this building in 1898, and occupied it until 1921, when it moved to larger quarters across the street. The building was purchased in 1926 by W. Grant, owner of a clothing store. He made alterations to the interior to accommodate the retail function, but retained significant architectural elements, including marble flooring and stairs, basement level waiting rooms, and the bank president's office on the second floor, which has rich decorative woodwork. The building design was the work of Harry Wilkinson, then in partnership with George Coombs and Eugene Gibbs. Of the many local designs of this prolific firm, it is one of the least-altered and best-preserved.

References

{{National Register of Historic Places Commercial buildings completed in 1898 Commercial buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Maine Buildings and structures in Lewiston, Maine 1898 establishments in Maine National Register of Historic Places in Lewiston, Maine

Description and history

See also

References