Androscoggin Historical Society Beginnings
The Androscoggin Historical and Antiquarian Society, as it was first called, was conceived on June 10, 1922, at a meeting of the Mary Dillingham Chapter National Society Daughters of the American Revolution. The meeting was an outing held at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Harry Bryant in South Lewiston, a colonial home containing many historical items. It’s reported that talk turned to preserving such relics, and Helen Frye White and Alice Frye Briggs, charter members of our chapter and daughters of Senator William P. Frye, expressed the need for a place where their father’s valuable collection could be safely kept.
This was not idle talk, for at the next chapter meeting, members discussed the founding of a historical society and appointed a committee to look into the matter. As a result, this society was incorporated in November of the following year, and its first meeting was held on May 13, 1924. “Thus it was,” as an early president of the society, James E. Philoon, wrote, “that the Daughters of the American Revolution became the mothers of this society.”
In the beginning, all members of the Mary Dillingham Chapter, NSDAR became voting members of the society. Over the years, a close relationship with the Mary Dillingham-Burnt Meadow Chapter, NSDAR has continued, with current by-laws requiring that one member of the society’s board be a representative of our DAR chapter.
A room on the third floor of the old part of the Androscoggin County building was the first quarters. Within a year, the society moved to a larger room on the third floor [later removed] of the Auburn City building. In 1936, the growing collection was moved back to the third floor of the county building, but this time to three rooms in the new part of the building, which the Androscoggin Historical Society still calls home.
