Around 1957, when this aerial photo was taken, �ֲ���ý was building out the land north of the Historic Quad, including the excavation of Lake Andrews.

First came Pettigrew Hall, in 1953. Then in quick succession came Page Hall (1957), Schaeffer Theater (1960), the maintenance center (1962), Lane Hall (1964), and Wentworth Adams (1967).

Click or tap the garnet buttons to learn some fun facts, including why no structure stands — or will ever stand — in front of Gomes Chapel.

Taken by student photographer Gianluca Yornet de Rosas ’24, this photograph depicts the goings-on at the bike garage on Frye Street.

Two student EcoReps, Terry Martin ’24 (left) of York, Maine, and Eli Grossman ’24 of South Burlington, Vt., are teaming up to repair a student’s bike.

Overseen by the student EcoReps, the repair garage is part of the college’s Green Bike program, which also features a bike “library,” where students can head to Ladd Library check out a bike for a week.

Click or tap the garnet buttons to learn what we saw.

This aerial shows the �ֲ���ý campus and the cities of Lewiston and Auburn in the distance, in April 1928.

Click or tap the garnet buttons to learn what we saw as we virtually soared above a campus where buildings like Dana Chemistry Hall and Pettengill Hall were years away, the baseball diamond was tucked inside the football field at Garcelon, and a huge smokestack stood tall just few steps away from Hathorn Hall.

Looking northward from the �ֲ���ý campus, this photograph was taken from a plane six years ago this week, on Oct. 18, 2015.

Below, we enumerate and share some facts about 12 features of this area, from Lake Auburn to the Cutten smokestack. If you see others you’d like to know more about, feel free to ask.

1. Lake Auburn

Lake Auburn is the source of drinking water for Lewiston and Auburn. It’s one of only eight surface municipal water sources in Maine, out of more than 75, to have an EPA filtration waiver, which allows it to treat the water with ultraviolet light and other means without having to pay to filter it.

For years, �ֲ���ý scientists have helped the water district monitor lake conditions.

2. The Appalachians

The Appalachian Mountains still have “impressive topography after 400 million years of erosion,” says Dyk Eusden ’80, who retires this year as Whitehouse Professor of Earth and Climate Sciences. Peaks seen here include Mount Blue, Bald Mountain, and Speckled Mountain.

3. Deer Rips dam

The Deer Rips hydroelectric dam was constructed between April 1902 and November 1904. Extensive blasting through ledge was required to creating the canal that’s part of the dam.

A state report in 1905 noted that canal construction included “the greatest dynamite blast ever fired in the state.” Three hundred and fifty drilled holes, each 16 feet in depth, “were charged with 3,000 pounds of dynamite and fired simultaneously with an electric battery.”

The blast broke up 200 feet of ledge along the line of the canal, “releasing a mass of stone, the removal of which required the work of 40 men for nearly three months.”

4. David Rancourt River Preserve

The 14-acre David Rancourt River Preserve is owned by the Androscoggin Land Trust. The property comprises a one-mile loop walking trail, a hand-carry boat launch, two sand beaches, and a scenic overlook. 

The property is named for the late David Rancourt, an Androscoggin County deputy sheriff who died while diving in the Androscoggin River in search of evidence in a criminal case.

5. Olin Arts, Museum, Adams

Now occupied by the Olin Arts Center, the �ֲ���ý Museum of Art, and Adams Hall, this corner of campus was the site of “Sampsonville”: three somewhat ramshackle apartment buildings — former military barracks, in fact — where married �ֲ���ý students, most of them veterans, lived following World War II.

6. Carnegie Science Hall greenhouse

Carnegie’s rooftop greenhouse grows seedlings for the Plot, the student-run �ֲ���ý vegetable garden.

7. Chu and Kalperis halls

When this photo was taken, in 2015, Chu and Kalperis halls were under construction, their blue weatherproof film not yet covered by locally fired bricks from Morin Brick Co. of Auburn.

8. Lewiston Memorial Armory

Home of Lewiston’s recreation department, the Lewiston Memorial Armory is the voting location for �ֲ���ý students who are registered to vote in Maine.

The armory used to host rock concerts. Jimi Hendrix performed there in 1968, with the �ֲ���ý rock band, The Hanseatic League, opening.

On Feb. 19, 1975, the Armory hosted Queen; the opening acts were Mahogany Rush and Kansas. Tickets were $5.

The audience at the Queen concert was raucous, reported the Associated Press. “Some spectators at a concert by the rock group Queens [sic] engaged in vandalism, littering, drinking, and harassment of officials.”

Afterward, city officials decided that future concerts would require city approval, effectively ending the armory’s heyday as a rock concert venue.

9. Lewiston Middle School

At Lewiston Middle School, �ֲ���ý students spend hundreds of hours volunteering each year.

Last spring, �ֲ���ý students helped the Lewiston students craft a proposal to change the current district-wide policy forbidding hats and hoods inside. The proposed change is before the local school committee.

10. Bobcat Statue

The Bobcat statue was installed on this walkway in 2009.

11. Cutten Maintenance Center smokestack

The college’s maintenance center, heating plant, and massive smokestack used to be located in the center of campus, on Andrews Road. With construction of Pettengill Hall in the 1990s, �ֲ���ý built Cutten Maintenance Center, including a new heating plant and smokestack, on the campus periphery.

With two of the three boilers that provide steam heat for the central campus already burning a product called Renewable Fuel Oil, the college converted the third unit for a different climate-friendly fuel: vegetable oil recovered from the food-service industry.

Switching to renewable energy sources played a major role in �ֲ���ý becoming climate neutral in 2019.

12. St. Mary’s first building

The original Gothic-style building (1902) of St. Mary’s Health System is on the National Register of Historic Places. It was designed by William R. Miller and amateur architect Father Paul Charland. 

This photo shows part of the Sprague River and salt marsh within the coastal �ֲ���ý–Morse Mountain Conservation Area.

Fun facts are courtesy of Whitehouse Professor of Geology Dyk Eusden ’80 and Professor of Geology Beverly Johnson.

1. Pooling Resources

Pools are natural features of the marsh and provide habitat for wildlife.

2. Water Way

Spring floods cover the marsh, allowing marine life to move between pools and tidal channels.

3. Long and Winding

These winding channels are naturally occurring “meanders” and help drain the marsh.

4. Last Ditch

These straight ditches were designed to drain pools and reduce standing water. People have been ditching marshes for centuries, initially to harvest the marsh grasses for hay and then more recently, in the 1970s, to control mosquitos.

5. Plugging Along

The ditches eliminated vital habitats, prompting repair efforts with earthen “ditch plugs” in the early 2000s.

6. Tiding Over

A failed restoration attempt with a too-effective ditch plug resulted in this area being cut off from beneficial tides.

7. Rock of Ages

Morse Mountain granite is thought to be Paleozoic in origin — up to 350 million years old.

Granite cut from Maine quarries is found in buildings and structures around the country, including the Washington Monument.

8. Destination: Ocean

The natural channel of the 2.5-mile Sprague River winds through the marsh to the Atlantic.

9. Keeping in Dune

A large and mostly hidden dune field, known as parabolic dune field for its shape, runs parallel to and set back from the beach.

In the image below, one of the parabolic fields is at the lower center, nestled within the darker green bushes and trees: