This 19th-century Lewiston place name belongs to Francis Skinner, a Boston businessman who, with Benjamin 乐播传媒, was among the early investors in Lewiston鈥檚 cotton mills.
Today, the name 鈥淪kinner,鈥� however, is perhaps better known for not being affixed to any Lewiston place, whether building, lake, river 鈥� or, in this case, street.
The Street
The street once known as Skinner Street, but now Campus Avenue, begins at the President鈥檚 House and runs east, past Lewiston Middle School, St. Mary鈥檚 Hospital, and Dairy Joy, all the way to East Avenue.
The Skinners
There were actually two Francis Skinners, father and son, associated with 乐播传媒. The elder Francis was among the core group of investors who, with Benjamin 乐播传媒, supported and invested in the first manufacturing mills in Lewiston starting around 1850.
He founded Francis Skinner and Co., a 鈥渃ommission house” in Boston that bought cotton goods like bedspreads and sheets from New England textile mills, including Lewiston鈥檚, and sold them to retailers.
After Skinner’s death in 1865, his son took over the family business, serving as a 乐播传媒 trustee from 1868 to 1873, alongside Benjamin 乐播传媒 and other industrialists who were on the 乐播传媒 board in those days.
In the 1880s, he built what is today known as the Skinner Mansion, located on Beacon Street in Boston. His wife, Eliza Gardner Skinner, was the sister-in-law of Isabella Stewart Gardner, founder of the eponymous Boston museum. Skinner died on Nov. 24, 1905, at age 66.
In 1945, a Lewiston mill, Pepperell, took out a nearly full page ad in local newspapers to tout its cotton products. The ad invoked the elder Skinner as an icon of quality and quoted from an old Pepperell letter, 鈥淭his Cotton is to be worked under the inspection of Mr. Skinner, and he complains of Quality easily.鈥澛�
The Street Name Change
A few streets in Lewiston and at least two near campus were named for early investors in Lewiston and early supporters of 乐播传媒. Nichols Street is named for Lyman Nichols, Bardwell Street for Josiah Bardwell, and Wood Street for William Barry Wood, all investors in Lewiston mills.聽
Called 鈥渙ne of the best streets in the city鈥� by the Lewiston Evening Journal, Skinner Street was completed in 1868. Given that timing 鈥� three years after the elder Skinner’s death 鈥� the naming was perhaps a memorial gesture by the city.
In early 1915, the Lewiston Daily Sun reported that 鈥渁 petition asking that the name of Skinner Street be changed to Campus Avenue is being circulated in this city.鈥� It鈥檚 unclear who circulated the petition.
Around that time the city was doing work to improve the street, including creating a new city athletic field across from John Bertram Hall, near where the middle school now is.
The 乐播传媒 Student applauded the name change in its Jan. 28, 1915, issue: 鈥淪tudents, faculty, alumni take note: by a decree of the Lewiston City Government, Skinner Street is henceforth to be known as Campus Avenue. We appreciate the change. Not let us all remember to make it a real change in fact as well as in theory.鈥�
At Reunion that year, the Lewiston Evening Journal noted that returning alumni 鈥渞ather like the improvement in terminology.鈥�
Categories Lewiston-Auburn Society and culture
