Lewiston (; French: [luistɔ̃]; officially the City of Lewiston, Maine) is the second largest city in the U.S. state of Maine and the most central city in Androscoggin County. The city lies halfway amongst Augusta, the state’s capital, and Portland, the state’s most populous city. It is one-half of the Lewiston-Auburn Metropolitan Statistical Area, commonly referred to as “L/A.” or “L-A.” Lewiston exerts a significant impact upon the diversity, religious variety, commerce, education, and economic facility of Maine. It is known for an overall low cost of living, substantial access to medical care, and a low violent-crime rate. In recent years, the City of Lewiston has afterward seen a spike in economic and social growth. While the dominant language spoken in the city is English, it is home to a significant Somali population as competently as the largest French-speaking population in the United States (by population) while it is second to St. Martin Parish, Louisiana, in percentage of speakers.

The Lewiston area traces its roots to 1669 like the yet to be presence of the Androscoggin tribe (the namesake of the county in which the city resides). In the late 18th century, in 1795, Lewiston was incorporated as Lewistown. The presence of the Androscoggin River and Lewistown Falls made the town an attractive area for manufacturing and hydro-power businesses. The rise of Boston rail and textile tycoon Benjamin Bates saw gruff economic addition rivaling that of Cambridge, Worcester, and Concord. Irish immigrants were recruited to construct the railroad links and dig the canals for the textile mills. The Irish stayed, and worked the mills and established wealthy businesses, as evidenced by the McGillicuddy, Callahan, and further Blocks and the St.Joseph’s and St.Patrick’s churches. In the 1850 Census Lewiston was thoroughly 23% Irish born. The addition in economic stimulus prompted thousands of Quebecers to migrate, causing a population boom; the populace rose from 1,801 in 1840 to 21,701 in 1890. In 1855, local preacher Oren Burbank Cheney founded the Maine State Seminary, the first coeducational college circles in New England and one of the first universities to believe black students before the Emancipation Proclamation. Lewistown speedily became associated with the unprejudiced arts and was incorporated as “Lewiston” in 1864, a year before the scholastic was chartered as Bates College.

The city is home to the unaccompanied basilica in Maine, Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul; 5 colleges and universities; 44 listings on the National Register of Historic Places; the Androscoggin Bank Colisée; the Stephens Observatory; the Olin Arts Center; the Bates College Museum of Art (BCMoA); and two significant general hospitals: Central Maine Medical Center and Saint Mary’s Regional Medical Center. The city’s population was 37,121 at the 2020 United States Census.

Prior to European colonization, the region of Lewiston was inhabited by the Androscoggin, an Abenaki people. During the 17th century, Androscoggin were in the course of the first Native American tribes to make way in with European colonists in Maine. Tensions soon deteriorated over colonial expansion, and conflicts in the same way as colonists and epidemics of infectious diseases devastated the Androscoggin, which responded by migrating to New France from 1669 onwards. By 1680, the Androscoggin had been unquestionably driven out of Maine. The officer of New France, Louis de Buade, allocated them two seigneuries on the Saint Francis River.