Cape Elizabeth is a town in Cumberland County, Maine, United States, and is the state's most affluent municipality (per household median income) based on Census 2000 data. The population was 9,068 at the 2000 census. A residential and resort area situated on the southern shore of Casco Bay just south of Portland, Maine, Cape Elizabeth is home to Crescent Beach State Park and Two Lights State Park.
Cape Elizabeth is the location of the Beach to Beacon 10-kilometer road race that starts at Crescent Beach State Park (the "beach") and ends at Portland Head Light (the "beacon"). This road race attracts world class runners and was founded by 1984 Olympics marathon gold medalist Joan Benoit Samuelson who grew up in Cape Elizabeth.
Cape Elizabeth is part of the Portland–South Portland–Biddeford, Maine Metropolitan Statistical Area.
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At the southern tip of the promontory, Richmond Island was visited about 1605 by Samuel de Champlain and was the sight of a trading post in 1628. John Smith explored and mapped New England in 1615, and gave names to places mainly based on the names used by Native Americans. When Smith presented his map to King Charles I he suggested that the king should feel free to change any of the "barbarous names" for "English" ones. The king made many such changes, but only four survive today, one of which is Cape Elizabeth, which Charles named in honor of his sister, Elizabeth of Bohemia.[1]
The first habitation by Europeans was on Richmond Island. Without title, Walter Bagnall (called "Great Walt") in 1628 established a trading post, dealing in rum and beaver skins. "His principal purpose appears to have been to drive a profitable trade with the Indians," writes historian George J. Varney, "without scruple about his methods." His cheating caught up with him in October of 1631, when he was killed by the Indians, who also burned down his trading post.
Two months later, the Plymouth Company granted Richmond Island to Robert Trelawney and Moses Goodyear, merchants of Plymouth, England, who made it a center for fisheries and trade. By 1638, Trelawney employed 60 men in the fisheries. The first settlers on the mainland were George Cleeve and Richard Tucker, who settled in 1630 on the shore opposite the island, and near the Spurwink River. They worked at planting, fishing and trading. Two years later they were driven off by John Winter, Trelawny's agent. In 1636, Sir Ferdinando Gorges, Lord Proprietor of Maine, gave Cleeve and Tucker a grant of 1500 acres (6 km˛) including the neck of land called "Machegonne" -- now Portland. In 1643 English Parliamentarian Alexander Rigby bought the large existing "Plough" of "Lygonia" patent which included the entire area including Cape Elizabeth.
The Cape Elizabeth settlement located on the Fore River would be known as "Purpoodock." It was attacked during King Philip's War in 1675, then destroyed in 1703. It would be resettled about 1719 or 1720. Cape Elizabeth became Maine's twenty-third town on November 1, 1765 when it separated from "Falmouth," as Portland was then known. Its first town meeting was held on December 2, 1765. South Portland separated from Cape Elizabeth in 1895.
In 1872, construction of an artillery base began around Portland Head Light, which in 1899 would be named "Fort Williams," after Major General Seth Williams of the Civil War. The fort was to guard the southern entrance to Portland Harbor. Active between 1899 and 1962, the fort was purchased by the town for about $200,000. Today, Fort Williams Park includes the ruins of the Goddard Mansion and three battery posts, Portland Head Light (dating from 1790 and the first lighthouse constructed by the United States, authorized by George Washington and dedicated by General Lafayette) and museum, tennis courts, a baseball diamond and grandstand, several acres of fields, a magnificent stretch of accessible coastline, and is maintained by the town which has repeatedly opted out of parking fees to ensure the park is maintained for use free of charge to the public.