Cape Cottage Casino and Theater was one of several amusement parks developed in the late 1890s by Portland’s electric railways in order to increase business on their trolley lines. The oceanfront entertainment casino, designed by architect John Calvin Stevens, was built in 1899 and operated until its sale in 1922, following the demise of transportation by trolley. The Cape Cottage Park Company then hired E.C. Jordan & Company, civil engineers, to subdivide the land and retained Stevens and his son as consulting architects. The 49 house lots that resulted were arranged around the casino, which was extensively downsized and remodeled as a private residence. Curvilinear roads and narrow lanes were lined with stone walls and hedges, with small circular turnarounds at the terminus of the narrow streets. The cottages are set close to each other on small lots, with front yards predominantly of lawn, and backyards with trees for shade. Overlooking Maiden Cove and Casco Bay, the subdivision included a bathing beach, a rocky beach, and a wharf remaining from the site’s earlier use.
Neighborhood residents have access to two beaches today, while the wharf no longer exists. Cape Cottage Park is one of nine subdivisions built between 1899 and 1926 along a one-mile stretch of Cottage Road and remains entirely residential. The subdivision also abuts the 90-acre Fort Williams Park.
