Attracted by employment opportunities in textile mills, French Canadians arrived in Lewiston in large numbers in the 1860s. They quickly developed their institutional network, which included ethnic parishes, fraternal organizations, and a long-lived newspaper, Le Messager. At the invitation of local clergy, the Sisters of Charity of Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec, came to the city in the 1880s to care for the sick. The building seen in this photograph was completed in 1902 and the institution officially became the Hôpital Général Sainte-Marie in 1908. The facilities have been expanded many times since then.

The photograph may feature or have been taken by Odile Ouellette, whose collection it appears in.