A photograph of the Androscoggin County Building in Auburn during its early years before a Civil War memorial was installed in front. The building was designed by the same architect responsible for Hathorne Hall, the centerpiece of Bates College in Lewiston. Private collection
AUBURN — One of the first things the newly created Androscoggin County decided after voters chose the county seat in 1854 was to construct a suitable building to house its offices and courtroom in the county seat in Auburn.
Finished two years later, the County Building has since been the scene of innumerable meetings, spectacular trials, hangings and most of the memorable moments connected with Androscoggin County’s typically tight-fisted government for 166 years.
Despite its listing on the National Register of Historic Places, county officials are weighing whether it is too costly to stay in the Renaissance Revival landmark that has served generations of residents.
At a roundtable discussion Wednesday, officials talked about their options, from renovating the building to leveling it.
“As a county, can we afford this building?” asked Sally Christner of Turner, chairwoman of the county commission.
The answer remained elusive.
Officials said it will cost millions of dollars to upgrade the heating, air conditioning and ventilation systems and more than $1 million to replace windows that in some cases are more than a century old. And that’s just what the county knows about.
Christner said before commissioners allocate the money to pay for it all, it’s important to consider alternatives.
“We’ve got to take a step back before we go forward,” she said.
Auburn City Manager Phil Crowell said a committee ought to be set up to determine what makes the most sense: “leveling this building and putting something in its place” or finding a new location for county offices or renovating the historic seat of county government.
“If we’re not careful, this could turn into a black hole that we just pour our money in,” Jane Pentheny of Poland, a member of the county budget committee, said.
She wondered about finding “someone to do housing in this building” if county offices were moved out.
Crowell said, though, it would be difficult to redevelop the building for a hotel or something similar, given that there’s a jail next door.
“It really makes this building challenging,” Crowell said.
Edouard Plourde, a commissioner from Lewiston, said officials are nowhere near making a decision. “It won’t be an easy, quick job,” he said.
“There’s a lot of unanswered questions,” Crowell said.
But there is pressure to move quickly. If the county wants to tap about $2.5 million in unallocated federal aid to help with whatever it chooses, it has to take action by the end of the 2024 fiscal year.
Sheriff Eric Sampson, who said a committee to probe alternatives makes sense, said it isn’t a fast process to investigate everything involved in making such a big decision. He and Crowell said the county ought to hire experts to help lay out the facts.
Whatever they decide, said Terri Kelly, a commissioner from Mechanic Falls, it “will impact the county for centuries to come” because of the “immense historic significance” of the building.
After the county’s creation by the state in 1854, voters were called upon to decide where the county seat should be. One reason Auburn emerged victorious is that its champions donated $5,000 to help pay for a new county building as long as voters agreed to put it in Auburn.
A 46-age pamphlet described what the county wanted for its building, to be erected at the corner of Court and Turner streets. A contractor got the job for a tad less than $70,000. That’s the equivalent of $2.5 million in 2023’s inflated currency, an amount that wouldn’t even cover half the HVAC project the county is eyeing today.
When James Philoon outlined the history of the building for a Lewiston Evening Journal story during the county’s centennial in 1954, he noted that the place was “built to endure” and that despite the passage of 97 years, the only sign of aging was a slight settling in the foundation where an ancient brook once flowed.
Plourde said it’s still solid now.
“The bones are good in this building,” he said.
In the successful 1976 application submitted to secure the building’s place on the National Register, the Maine Historic Preservation Commission called it an “impressive landmark” with fine details credited to Boston architect Gridley J.F. Bryant, who designed many important buildings in the mid-1800s, including the U.S. Customs House in San Francisco and Bates College’s Hathorne Hall.
The federal paperwork said the building, opened in 1857, “stood as a symbol of the final settlement” of the sometimes bitter dispute between Auburn and Lewiston about its placement.
It was a symbol of enduring unity.
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