Main Street Historic District

Date: [unknown] [unknown]
Location: Auburn, Androscoggin, Maine, United States

There are 14 houses included in the (US) National Register of Historic Places, Main Street Historic District in Auburn, Maine. The district contains eight houses on Main Street, five on Elm Street, and one on Vine Street. Three of them are listed separately on the NRHP: the Edward Little House (1827 - listed 1976), the Arthur A. Garcelon House (1890 - Listed 1986), and the Horation G. Foss House, aka Women's Literary Union of Androscoggin County (1914-1917 - listed 1976).

This page has information about the buildings and links to people associated with those 14 properties.

Edward Little House

The oldest house in the district was built in 1827 for Edward Little, called Squire Little, who was a lawyer and inherited land in Danville near Lewiston Falls from his father. He was a philanthropist. He gave money to help establish a church (The Congregational Church of Danville at Lewiston Falls in 1826, later moved and renamed High Street Congregational Church), land and money to erect a church and parish building in 1833, help recruit and support the salary of its first pastor, Rev. Weston Bela Adams as well as provide land for Rev. Adams' house. He gave land and money in 1834 to build Lewiston Falls Academy which eventually became Edward Little High School. He helped establish local businesses. He was an abolitionist and supporter of the temperance movement.

He and his wife Hannah Merrill (Brown) had 11 children in Newburyport, Massachusetts. Of those children, six died in infancy or childhood before the parents moved to Auburn. Two sons, Thomas Brown Little and Josiah Little, married and removed from their parents' household before this house was built.

After Hannah died in 1828 he married Hannah (Andrews) Chase, a widow with two young children.

The children and step children of Edward Little who almost certainly lived in this house as children are: Hannah Little who married Samuel Pickard in 1832; Edward Toppan Little who married Melinda Crosby Adams in 1839; [[Little-2965|Sarah Little]] who married Charles Clark in 1841; [[Chase-9672}George Washington Chase]] who married Jeannette Clark in 1841; and Harriet Andrews Chase who married Nelson Briggs Reynolds in 1839.

Thomas Brown Little, the eldest, lived in the house with his family after his father's death in 1849. Hannah (Andrews) Chase Little, Edward's widow, moved in with her son George Washington Chase and his family after Edward's death.