223 Main Street
Auburn, Maine, USA

223 Main Street, Auburn, Maine, USA

The house stands on the west side of Main Street, south of Auburn's downtown, midway between Vine and Elm Streets. Its part of Main Street was once Auburn's most fashionable residential area. It is a 2+1⁄2-story wood-frame structure, with asymmetrical massing typical of the Queen Anne style. It is one of Auburn's finest Queen Anne Victorians, with projecting bay sections on its two street-facing sides and a projecting corner tower rising three stories, with a rounded roof. Bands of scallop-cut shingles separate the first and second floor and also fill the gable ends of the projecting bays. Spindle-work porches on both floors adorn the main facade. The interior of the house is largely unaltered, retaining period woodwork, including fireplace mantels and trim. A period carriage house was demolished in 1985.

The house designed by Jefferson L. Coburn of Lewiston and built in 1890 for Arthur. A. Garcelon, a merchant of French Canadian extraction who operated a grocery supplier. Jefferson Coburn was a prominent architect working in the Lewiston area during the last two decades of the 19th century.