LEWISTON — The new Maine MILL museum stands out in the daytime as an architectural wonder on the south edge of Simard-Payne Memorial Park. 

At night, the northern facade lights up from its atrium and from a plethora of dots representing the punch cards used for the loom that recreated the famed Martha Washington bedspread. 

The museum and its new digs at 1 Beech St. paint and weave Lewiston’s history as a place of industry and innovation in a way both locals and those from across Maine can call their own.

Long in possession of a Jacquard loom, the museum has never in its 30-year history had the room to set up the piece of ground-breaking technology in its entirety as it would have when operating in the city’s textile mills. 

That changes when Maine MILL opens its new 22,000-square-foot museum on June 27. 

With threads extending to the building’s second-floor ceiling along with yard upon yard of punch cards that controlled the fabric designs created by the towering machine, the upper portion of the installation is encircled with some of the very textiles the machine would have created during its operation.

The Jacquard loom is one of many artifacts and installations in the new space culminating from a $15 million project aimed at preserving and interpreting the industrial history of Lewiston and Auburn. 

Preservation, though, is only a part of Maine MILL’s mission.

“A major theme of how we present the collection and the work that we do here is connecting history to the present to inform the future,” Executive Director Rachel Ferrante said, adding that this philosophy shapes permanent exhibits organized around four themes: community and place, labor, innovation, and Maine as it is today.

One section of the museum follows the production of a Bates mill bedspread from cotton in the raw, harvested by American slaves in the South, to its carding, roving and spinning. The historic machinery is accompanied by photographs and textiles, and a nearby alcove presents a listening experience for visitors highlighting oral histories.

There, in the center of the floor, sits the Jacquard loom surrounded by exhibits and towering over visitors. 

The punch cards situated above the machine were used to create woven patterns for years, a precursor to modern computers. 

Visitors can interact with displays to experiment with binary code and programming concepts, while another exhibit allows them to control small robots.

“This is zeros and ones before there were zeros and ones,” Ferrante said of the Jacquard loom, adding that it was a true innovation for its time.

“So you go from the history of the Jacquard loom to the present thinking about binary code and computers to the future of how robots are going to play a role in our everyday lives.”

The museum also features a space dedicated to the memory of the victims and community response following the Oct. 25, 2023, mass shooting. 

This year, the items displayed include the original doors from Just-In-Time Recreation, a pool table light fixture recovered from Schemengees Bar & Grille and preserved replicas of pumpkins left at community memorials after the attack.

The second floor room will feature annual memorial installations, with exhibits rotating over time as the community reflects on the tragedy.

The first exhibition in Maine MILL’s main rotating gallery centers on Lewiston’s history of brick production. “A Common Bond: The Brick Journal” uses bricks as material and metaphor to explore where craft, industry and community meet. The exhibition features contemporary art reflecting themes of labor, material and place among installations tied to industrial and cultural history.

Ferrante said her favorite space in the new museum is the second-floor atrium where visitors can look out and see the footbridge to Auburn, Simard-Payne Memorial Park and Lewiston’s historic mill district. 

“You’re sitting at the nexus of the old building and the new,” Ferrante said. “(The space and view) encapsulates sort of what the museum’s trying to do in the stories we tell both inside and the ways we’re trying to be connected to the community outside.”

The new museum space is fittingly in a former mill, the Camden Yarns Mill built in the 1860s. The mill was completely renovated and an 8,000-square-foot expansion was made. The mill was one of many built in the 1800s and early 1900s that put Lewiston on the map nationally and drew thousands of workers, many from Canada, seeking better lives.

Mayor Carl Sheline said the city’s new museum gem reminds residents and visitors alike of Lewiston’s industrial and cultural importance.

“The Maine MILL is a striking addition to our riverfront and stands as a symbol of who we are in Lewiston,” Sheline said. “I could not be more proud.”

On the evening of June 26, the museum will hold its annual Soiree en Blanc fundraiser. The next morning on June 27, a ribbon-cutting ceremony and official opening will be held. The museum will be offering free admission June 27-28.

“This is a museum that was created by this community, for this community,” Ferrante said. “We hope everybody finds pride of place and their story represented here.”