LEWISTON — It was the windows that really inspired Jamey Pittman to put so much effort into First McGillicuddy Block.

“It was just so beautiful and so many of them,” he said. “So many of these old buildings are so narrow, you only have windows on one side.”

But the McGillicuddy, at the corner of Lisbon and Ash streets, has windows all along the exterior for three floors, providing commanding views of City Hall and Lewiston’s downtown to the south and the east and Auburn and the Androscoggin River to the west.

Pittman’s work preserving the 1895 building was recognized by the city’s Historic Preservation Review Board on Thursday.

The building is home to a Subway restaurant and eight apartments.

“Every year, we try and give an award to the owner of an older building that has been renovated, rejuvenated and adapted to a new use,” Bill Clifford, board chairman, said Thursday. “This year, we only have one recipient, and that’s Jamey Pittman.”

The building was built in 1895 by Irish immigrant John McGillicuddy. It has housed a number of lawyers’ offices over the years, including McGillicuddy’s son, Daniel, Brann and Isaacson, Alton Lessard, Thomas Delahanty and Charles Pomeroy. Other tenants included Phillips Shoe Company, several music teachers, insurance companies and jeweler Louis Nolin.

The property was owned by the McGillicuddy family until 1960, when it was sold to a realty company. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.

Pittman bought the building in May 2012. Subway was at the street level, with a beauty salon below and behind the restaurant. The upper floors were used for offices, just as they had been for most their history.

Pittman said he thought they’d make great apartments.

Elizabeth Eames, one of his tenants, agreed. She moved into the building’s top floor in December, a single-bedroom unit with a half-story loft.

“I love being downtown; I love the view,” she said. “I overlook Forage, so I get to see people going in and out of the busy part of town. I love the high ceilings; I love the exposed brick; I love the distressed wooden floors. I love the loft.”

After the award presentation in Lewiston City Hall, Pittman opened the building and its apartments for a quick tour. The three stories above Subway hold eight single-bedroom apartments, three each on the second and third floors and two on the fourth floor.

All are rented, Pittman said.

Clifford said it’s exactly the kind of development Lewiston needs.

“We need all we can get,” Clifford said. “We do this to encourage other people to do the same thing as Jamey did. This is our way of encouraging the people who own these buildings to renovate them because Lewiston is filled with history like this.”

staylor@sunjournal.com

Copy the Story Link