Ever since I came to Lewiston in 1994, people have been telling me about parts of the city that used to be much grander. 

They talk about Fairgrounds Business Park along Mollison Way as though the area used to be a veritable wonderland of spectacles. 

“They had a horse racing track, stables and a big ol’ grandstand back when it was a gen-u-wine fairground,” they will babble. “There were fairs there all the time and regular music concerts. The Grateful Dead played there, you know.” 

I don’t call them liars, exactly, but it’s hard for me to imagine that bland neighborhood as anything but a center of businesses and government buildings. 

They talk about Paradise Park, an area that is now a cluster of industrial buildings off the long, lonely road that is Alfred Plourde Parkway. They tell me there used to be a small amusement park there, with bumper boats, a big ol’ pool, go-carts and a giant spotlight that used to light up the sky, visible for miles around. 

I mean, really bro? Go-carts? 

They talk about the Little Canada neighborhood and how it was once an incredibly dense cluster of tall tenement buildings, all standing under the shadow of an immense gas ball that once rose into the sky on Lincoln Street. 

Again, hard to imagine. If only there was a way to travel back in time to see all these wonders, how great it would be to witnesses the evolution of Lewiston. 

Come to find out, there is a way to do exactly that. Forget Google Earth and all that high-tech business, did you know that the city of Lewiston offers, through its website, a massive collection of aerial photos dating back to the 1950s? Did you know they set up this system on the web so that anyone, at any hour of the day, can casually flip their way through the years and decades using a simple slider to overlay the various time periods and to move back and forth between past and present? 

There IS such a system and to me, it really is like time travel. 

When I first heard about it — my wife had just spent some dazed hours traveling into Lewiston’s past on the system — I sought out Jim Ward, Lewiston’s GIS manager/coordinator with the Public Works Department.  

As it happens, the city has been paying to have aerial surveys of the city for a long, long time. Often they’d do it in conjunction with city officials in Auburn, or they’d partner up with Androscoggin County or the state itself. 

They also pulled together individual photos from various sources, including, in 1961, a wall mosaic of aerial photographs that had been hanging at City Hall. 

Fast forward to the present time, and Ward and other city workers have digitized the old photos and grouped them with the newer photos and transformed it all into some kind of cohesive and easy-to-use system. 

“This idea began with conversations with Planning and Engineering departments,” Ward explained, “as both had bits and pieces, boxes of prints, etc., of some very early aerial photography. We also had GIS seamless aerial photography going back to 1997. Having the ability to observe historical change, and use patterns, etc., proves to be a valuable tool for the city. Particularly from the standpoint of land use. The city Planning and Code Enforcement department uses this frequently.” 

Using the new system is fun for anyone who wants to take a gander at how the neighborhood looked 50, 60 or 70 years ago. However, the system wasn’t designed specifically for entertainment, but rather to serve several practical purposes. 

“A user can observe historical use, changes, growth patterns, neighborhoods,” Ward said, “be it farmlands, old train yards/industrial blight converted to parks, new roads, etc. Developers, citizens, planners, engineers can all make use of this tool.” 

Ward also likes to use the tool to demonstrate the impressive growth the city has undergone over the years, stifling the observations made by some surly folks that Lewiston has stagnated. 

“As much as people complain,” Ward said, “there are lots of improvements, the evolution of which can be seen in these maps. To sum it up, they provide historical insight to life of the city, even if it only reflects the last 70 or so years of changes. Since that imagery was captured as that snapshot in time, it is almost like stepping into a time machine. Questions like, how densely built was this part of this city in this (past) timeframe vs. now, how quickly an area developed, patterns over time, or what is the historical use of a certain area.”

He even offered a list of certain areas that have undergone profound changes over the years.

— Ugly crowded old buildings jammed along Lincoln Street all the way from Main to Cedar streets: now part of the city’s Riverfront Master Plan with green spaces making it a place to visit and dine out.

— Also on Lincoln Street: “We had those ugly, hulking structures and the stinky aroma around the gas works with the dirty and half-torn-down giant gas balls. . . . Just look at how crowded and built up areas like Lincoln Street (and) lower Main Street were,” says Ward. “The buildings you see were mostly unattractive wooden structures. . . . Still this was hardly a place you would want to visit for a nice meal at your favorite restaurant or pub as you would now. This will be an area to watch as the Riverfront continues in its redevelopment.”

— Simard-Payne Park: “This is probably the most significant as several stages of transformation of that area can be observed from the historical aerials,” says Ward. “From 1951, when it was a fully operational rail depot, readers should see if they can spot the tiny Grant Trunk RR steam loco. It’s there in 1951. Subsequent years show it falling into disrepair and stages of non-use. In 2001 it began its transition to a park (sorry we don’t have 2001 views). Further years show the addition of a new amphitheater. Future plans include new ribbon walkways and carry-in boat launches/docks. Look for 46 Beech Street, rear.”

— An area that offered “live” sewage lagoons. “Now this area is all reclaimed and it’s a ball park!” Ward says. Specifically, the Randall Road ballfields.

— Old ugly auto salvage yards on Lisbon Street, one by Foss Road, other by Pleasant Street. These were just part of the “scenery” back then. Now? Gone.

— Frothing, foaming, sulfurous-smelling Androscoggin River, now almost swimmable. You can see the foam in abundance in the older photos.

— Trident Drive: former Paradise Park (from 1971-1978ish;)  “This was a small family-run amusement park known for the go-carts, large pool with crazy corkscrew slide, a pond with rental rowboats, game room, batting cages, mini-golf, a few other things,” says Ward. “And anyone living here in that era will recall the huge powerful searchlights which looked like white laser beams that could be seen from neighboring towns on hot summer nights. It was operated from around 1971 to around 1979. Look for 3, 4 Trident Drive.”

— Treemount Drive area of the city: In 1951 it is all fields; now, a tight residential neighborhood.

— East Avenue, where Lewiston High School and Connors Elementary School are now located. In 1951, everything west of East Avenue all the way to the downtown was fields and woods.

— Also, the Bates College area, where big changes can be seen between the earliest date, 1951, and now.

— Maine State Fairgrounds and horse racing track off outer Main Street, where Just-In-Time Recreation, Marco’s Restaurant and the Department of Motor Vehicles are, among other concerns. “This is a transformation that can bring mixed feelings and fond memories,” says Ward. “Many older generations recall the fairs, the amusements, concerts, and of course horse racing. The property was privately owned and was likely expensive to maintain, especially with its very seasonally focused activity period. This was slowly transformed into a business park beginning in the 1980s. In 1993 Mollison Way was constructed. Now it is a viable and successful business park. Look for Mollison Way.”

It can be a little bit daunting when you pop open the aerial photography web page for the first time. What you’re looking at is a split-screen aerial view of the city, with the left side being the more recent view and the right side being the older view, depending on your settings. There’s a pull-down layers menu in the upper right corner of the page where you can select the two years you want to view. The line in the middle of the screen that separates the views is actually a slider that can be moved this way and that, depending on how you want to view the past and present.

Most of the areas Ward suggests looking at — and others you might want to search for— can be found by using the search function on the screen. When putting a street name into the search bar in the upper left corner, type slowly and wait for the drop-down list to appear.

And of course, you can zoom in to your heart’s delight. The older photos get a little fuzzy when you zoom in real tight, but really, not as fuzzy as you might expect. It doesn’t take long to get the hang of it and once you do, say goodbye to any plans you had that day, because these dips into the past quickly become habit forming.

I’d invite you to call me for help with it, you know, but chances are good I’ll be in 1971 getting my go-cart thrills at Paradise Park.

Time travel sure is swell.

The website is: https://lewistonme.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=32abe5cd69724b3588676e65cba147df

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