Pieces of Portland’s pizzazz are indebted to Lewiston-Auburn

I like Portland. It is a vibrant, authentic city with a thriving social scene, arts and cultural opportunities, and a sophisticated sense of itself. I like Lewiston and Auburn, too. L-A is doing the vital work of bridging the river and rising beyond the drudgery of its industrial past. The more I get to know Portland, the more potential I see in L-A.

When I returned to L-A after an absence of 18 years, I was pleasantly surprised by a renewed civic spirit, and a sense of two cities engaging in the adventure of re-creating themselves.

The Riverwalk and Festival Plaza on the Auburn side are fine works of public art that echo the beauty of the river and falls, and recall our heritage as well.

The Great Falls Balloon Festival offers color, fun, excitement and celebration. It is a grand metaphor for the aspirations of our cities: lifting off and soaring to new heights. Likewise, the bridge party at the Fourth of July is a masterstroke of poetry.

The transformation of St. Mary’s into the Franco-American Heritage Center, and the emergence of Museum L-A provide our people with cultural anchors from which great creativity is flowing. These institutions provide not just breaths of entertainment into our cities, but rather gusts of meaning and life.

The opening of Gritty McDuff’s in Auburn, too, is a sign of re-emerging life. A clean, attractive social venue that features native-brewed beverages and bands, Gritty’s offers an ongoing locus of healthy fun for our residents.

The L-A Arts’ Art & Ale display on the busy corner of the building adds a real touch of class, too. It makes walking downtown more than merely functional; it makes it fun. But we can make downtown even more fun.

Greater Portland Landmarks sponsors a program called Portland’s History Docents. The 10-week course is a collaboration among Portland’s leading historical sites and institutions, designed to recruit and train a volunteer work force.

The contribution the PHD program makes to Portland’s vitality is subtle, but profound. Not only do local residents absorb the heritage of their city as participants, they pass that sense of place on to their local school children who visit those sites in droves. Visitors from away take those tours, too. The PHD program provides a firm grounding in the city’s enduring identity for residents and visitors alike.

Lewiston and Auburn are still in the beginning stages of redeveloping their identity. There is tremendous potential here, but a lifetime of work to do as well. While researching historical topics in Portland, I was stunned to learn that Lewiston and Auburn spawned an artist of not just local and statewide significance, but of national import as well.

I had never heard of this guy.

Franklin Simmons was born locally and worked in Lewiston’s Hill Mill as a youth. While in Lewiston, Simmons found his talent as a sculptor, eventually moved to Rome (Italy, not Maine), and completed sculptures of President Lincoln’s Cabinet and prominent military officers, which are on display in the nation’s Capitol.

Locally, the statue of Edward Little is Franklin Simmons’ work, as is the soldier’s monument in Kennedy Park. Portland’s two greatest pieces of public art are also his: the Longfellow statue on Longfellow Square, and “Our Lady of Victories” on Monument Square. The Portland Museum of Art hosts Simmons’ statue of President Ulysses S. Grant, among others. Portland owes a measure of its grandeur to Lewiston and Auburn.

Our cities do a grand job of memorializing our soldiers and policemen, as we should, but statues of men with guns don’t create a positive buzz quite the way a celebration of art and intellect does. There should be a monument to Franklin Simmons in L-A, just as there is a monument to John Ford in Portland. Auburn’s significant author, Holman Day, comes to mind as another “local done good” to be celebrated.

To match the depth and texture of the Portland experience, Lewiston and Auburn must anchor redevelopment with a sense of history and identity. Do we have a group of knowledgeable citizens leading historical tours of our cities? Do our school children visit the local historic sites and trails? Do we have local historic sites and trails? How many of us know who the Roak Block and the McGillicuddy buildings were named after?

Lewiston and Auburn have a very rich heritage yet to be rediscovered.

John Henderson conducts historical research, writing, and education as Hometown History Works. He lives in Auburn.