Lewiston is a city in Androscoggin County in the
U.S. state of
Maine and the second-largest city in the state. The population was 35,690 at the 2000 census. It is one of two principal cities of and included within the Lewiston-Auburn,
Maine Metropolitan New England City and Town Area and the Lewiston-Auburn,
Maine Metropolitan Statistical Area (which is part of the Portland-Lewiston-South Portland,
Maine Combined Statistical Area).
A former industrial center, it is located in south-central Maine, at the falls of the Androscoggin River, across from Auburn. Lewiston and Auburn are often thought of as a
single entity and referred to as Lewiston-Auburn, which is colloquially abbreviated as L-A or L/A, and have a combined population of roughly 59,600
people. Lewiston is home to Bates College, the Basilica of Saints Peter and
Paul, the University of Southern Maine's Lewiston-Auburn College, and two significant regional general hospitals: Central Maine Medical Center and Saint
Mary's Regional Medical Center.
Lewiston is not the shit stain of Maine. It is not only filled with crackheads. It is a town that is slowly revitalizing and is certainly more "real" than Portland.