The Path We've Chosen: Lewiston & Preserving It's History with the M.I.L.L Museum
Lewiston is a city shaped by movement.
Water moving through the Androscoggin River.
People moving across borders.
Work moving from one generation to the next.
At Rancourt & Co., every pair of shoes begins the same way: on the factory floor in Lewiston, Maine. Every pair is made here, and many are available now in our in-stock collection, ready to begin their own path. In Stock Collection.
A mill town shaped by the river, Lewiston once stood at the heart of American manufacturing, where textiles, leather goods, and footwear defined daily life for generations.
Recently, during a visit to the Maine MILL Museum with owner Mike Rancourt, that connection became tangible again. Walking through preserved looms, machinery, and worker stories makes clear that the craft practiced today did not appear suddenly. It was built slowly, collectively, and locally.
This chapter follows how Lewiston shaped the craft and how the craft continues to shape Lewiston.
The River & The Mills
Before there was a factory, there was a river.
The Androscoggin River became the economic engine of Lewiston in the early nineteenth century. In the 1840s, the Boston-based Androscoggin Falls Dam Company constructed canals and waterpower systems designed specifically to attract large-scale manufacturing to the region. The success of that infrastructure transformed Lewiston almost overnight from a rural settlement into one of New England’s fastest-growing industrial cities.
By the late 1800s, massive brick textile mills lined the riverbanks, powered entirely by water turbines fed through an engineered canal system. Companies such as Bates Manufacturing employed thousands of workers producing cotton textiles distributed nationwide.
Industrial expansion created the conditions for related trades, including leatherwork and footwear manufacturing, to grow alongside textile production. Skilled labor networks formed, machine repair knowledge spread, and manufacturing expertise became embedded in the local workforce.
According to the Maine MILL Museum, Lewiston became one of Maine’s primary industrial centers because of this integrated waterpower system, which allowed year-round production long before widespread electrification.
The First Immigrants
Lewiston’s growth depended on immigration.
Beginning in the 1850s and accelerating through the early twentieth century, French-Canadian families crossed into Maine from Quebec seeking steady mill employment. By 1900, Lewiston had one of the largest Franco-American populations in the United States, with entire neighborhoods forming around shared language, faith, and the rhythms of mill work.
Daily life centered on industry. Parents worked in spinning rooms and stitching departments while children often entered industrial trades as young adults. Skills were rarely taught formally. They were learned through repetition, observation, and mentorship, passed from one generation to the next on factory floors rather than in classrooms.
During this same period, footwear manufacturing expanded rapidly across Maine. By the mid-twentieth century, the state ranked among the leading shoe-producing regions in the country, employing tens of thousands of workers in factories stretching from Lewiston and Auburn to Brunswick and beyond. Shoemaking became a defining economic force, supported by deeply rooted craft knowledge and skilled immigrant labor.
(Sources: Maine Historical Society; Maine Department of Labor archives.)
Among those who would later follow this same path was David Rancourt, founder of Rancourt & Co.
David immigrated from Sherbrooke, Quebec, carrying forward both shoemaking skill and the determination shared by earlier generations who came to Lewiston in search of opportunity. Like many Franco-American families before him, manufacturing offered stability, dignity, and the possibility of building a future through craftsmanship.
Inside the galleries of the Maine MILL Museum, stories of early workers echo that experience, families arriving with trade knowledge, learning by doing, and passing skills forward through generations.
The Rancourt story mirrors Lewiston’s broader history:
Immigration fueling industry.
Industry creating community.
Craft connecting generations.
The Mills Then & Now
Industrial change arrived gradually.
Following World War II, global competition and automation reshaped American manufacturing. Textile production declined, and many factories across New England closed or relocated overseas during the mid-to-late twentieth century.
Lewiston experienced the same pressures faced by manufacturing cities nationwide.
Yet the physical landscape endured.
The brick mill complexes remained structurally sound, built for permanence. Rather than demolition, many were adapted for new uses beginning in the 1990s and early 2000s, housing small manufacturers, artists, technology firms, housing developments, and community organizations.
The transition represents evolution without erasure.
The Maine MILL Museum plays a central role in preserving this industrial history. Located within the historic Bates Mill Complex, the museum maintains working machinery, archival photographs, and oral histories documenting daily life inside Maine’s textile and shoe industries.
Rancourt owner Mike Rancourt serves as Chairman of the museum’s Board of Directors, supporting efforts to ensure that Lewiston’s manufacturing legacy remains accessible not as nostalgia, but as education.
New Immigrant Communities
Immigration continues to shape Lewiston.
Beginning in the early 2000s, the city welcomed new residents from Angola, Somalia, and other nations, many arriving through secondary migration after initially settling elsewhere in the United States. These communities revitalized downtown neighborhoods, opened businesses, and contributed to workforce renewal.
Lewiston today reflects multiple waves of arrival layered across generations, echoing patterns established during the French-Canadian migration more than a century earlier.
According to research from Bates College’s Muskie School and local municipal records, immigration has contributed significantly to population stabilization and economic activity in Lewiston during periods when many post-industrial cities experienced decline.
Rancourt Today
Rancourt & Co. has operated in Lewiston since 1967.
Our factory stands within walking distance of the historic mills that once defined the region’s industrial economy. While much of American footwear manufacturing moved overseas in the late twentieth century, remaining in Lewiston allowed the company to retain skilled labor and continue Maine’s handsewn shoemaking tradition.
Today’s work builds directly upon knowledge developed across decades of regional manufacturing.
Techniques refined through generations remain active on the factory floor, carried forward by experienced makers and new apprentices alike. Craft here is not preserved behind glass. It is practiced daily.
As we mark another year of shoemaking in Lewiston, a select group of foundational styles is included in our Anniversary offering — a quiet acknowledgment of 58 years rooted here.
Staying was never the easiest path.
But it allowed continuity.
The Path Continues
Lewiston has always adapted without losing its foundation.
The river still moves through the city.
New communities continue to arrive.
Work continues to evolve.
Rancourt remains here because craft is inseparable from place. The same forces that once powered the mills — skilled labor, immigration, shared purpose — continue to shape the work produced t
The city continues to shape the craft.
And the craft continues to shape the city.
The path continues to be worn, step by step, here at home.
Explore the full Well-Worn Paths series and see where the journey began.