The History of Fort Williams Park | Cape Elizabeth Maine

[Music] hey everybody it's Doug shelf with the make main your home team over Re Max Oceanside hey in today's episode we're going to talk about Fort Williams right here in Cape Elizabeth it's got the Portland headlight Fort Williams this is an awesome place so let's do this [Music] all right everybody hey like let's talk about Fort Williams and the Portland headlights today you know one fun fact I've heard is I believe the Portland headlight is the most photographed lighthouse in the world I always think that's pretty cool I like to plug that wherever we can I'm going to jump right in with my trusty glasses so that area there Fort Williams has been there and protected Portland for a very long time you know back in 1776 the Revolutionary War there was a lot of soldiers you know posted right there in that Fort Williams area so it's very very important area to protect Maine and Portland and all that stuff it wasn't until 1790 that the lighthouse was constructed and this is this is interesting you'll like some of these like dollar amounts in uh 1787 is when the general court of Massachusetts provided 750 dollars to begin the construction of the lighthouse in 1790 is when the United States government took over the responsibility of the lighthouse and the Congress approved fifteen hundred dollars for its completion so that's pretty funny the construction of the first Keepers quarters began in 1790 and the first keep Keepers house was erected in 1816. on Christmas Eve of 1886 this is a cool story so a ship came in and crashed and it was the keeper Joshua strout and his uh son his wife and a lot of volunteers basically came in and like saved everybody Captain O'Neill's the shipmaster his wife two mates a nine-man crew all brought into safety because of the Keeper's uh family so that's a really cool story way back then the current Keepers building was constructed in 1891 it's a two-story duplex and that was there until 1989. it wasn't until 1990 that the property was leased to the town of Cape Elizabeth and now it's the U.S Coast Guard that maintains the actual light that's up there and the fog signal but the remaining property of Fort Williams is all maintained by the town of Cape Elizabeth there's some great things there there's like an award-winning Museum of course the live White House there which they only do they only open up the lighthouse one day a year being somebody who lives here in Cape Elizabeth I thought I'd give you like the hometown feel of what you should and shouldn't do there's a little Beach area there with like a playground all that stuff as soon as you drive in it's one of the best views in Maine I love it there's you know the old forts are there that you can kind of hike around and check up there's what they call a cliff walk it's like a trail that goes right down great views of the water it goes from like the fort area all the way over to the Portland headlight a lot of that is maintained by the Rotary Club the Cape Elizabeth South Portland rotary club which I'm involved in as well the Children's Garden was designed and built and I believe maintained with the help of the Rotary Club the Cape Elizabeth South Portland Rotary Club and also uh Cape Elizabeth the town the Children's Garden is awesome it's got this cool like Granite slide for the kids uh like Trails through the garden just a really awesome place to check out there's also a great shelter there that you can rent out for like family gatherings and stuff and all the while when you're at Fort Williams enjoy enjoying all this stuff you got one of the best views and all of Maine looking out over the ocean looking at the Portland headlight make sure when you're there check it out take some pictures of yourself take a selfie it's awesome show everybody that you've been there and talk about it come on and check it out it's an awesome Place highly recommend it anyway if you've been there which uh chances are you probably have give me some comments below let me know what you think of it let me know what your favorite things are oh I almost forgot to mention that field in there when you're first driving to Fort Williams in the winter because if you watch this channel you know that I love winter there's lots of great sledding right there cross country skiing and there's lots of great spots to ice skate all throughout Fort Williams in the winter too so check that out and remember if you make me in your home you don't have to do it alone [Music] thank you

Channel: Make Maine Your Home

Views: 659

Keywords: The History of Fort Williams Park, cape elizabeth maine, portland head lighthouse, new england, portland head light, fort williams park, fort williams, childrens garden fort williams, maine history, light house, portland head light shipwreck, portland head light cape elizabeth me, fort williams park maine, cape elizabeth, portland headlight, best parks in maine, best views in maine

Id: 7GCpyeIwDnk

Length: 4min 23sec (263 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 07 2022