(Page 2 of 2) Print Version
Cape Cottage Park
In June of 1898, the Portland and Cape Elizabeth Railway opened its new trolley resort at Cape Cottage. Cars left Monument Square daily every ten minutes for a scenic run along the Cape Shore Road out to the Park.
The Cape Cottage Casino was a two-and-a-half-story building with two wide verandas facing the main shipping channel. In "Trolley Tripping around New England", Robert Alexander Harrison writes:
"On its rocky bluffs, pine-fragrant, we may sit and see the unbroken procession of sail and steam craft passing thro the Ship Channel directly in front of the Casino. A prospect that ever changes, never tires. It is beautiful and restful here at any time."
The dining hall, famed for its shore dinners, was on the first floor of the casino and had wide windows on all sides that could swing open to let in the cool ocean breezes. The ballroom was located on the second floor with a balcony at one end to provide a place for the orchestra.
The casino was also equipped with a kitchen, bakeshop, bathhouse facilities, a large billiard room, and a place to park bicycles. The gardens and grounds were designed by Gray & Blaisdell, the same Boston landscape architects who worked on Riverton Park.
Portland, South Portland, & Cape Elizabeth electric railroads, ca. 1941
Item Contributed by
Seashore Trolley Museum
The Cape Cottage Theater, described in an advertisement as "a beautiful theater equipped with all modern improvements and luxurious appointments" was another popular feature of the park. The theater was managed by Bartley McCullum, a local actor who is credited with pioneering summer stock theater in Maine.
The Cape Cottage Theater, or McCullum's Theater as it was also known, was considered to be "a synonym for high-class summer theater" and featured the work of some of America's most famous light opera singers.
The declaration of war with Germany in 1917 was the beginning of the end for Cape Cottage Park. The railway company offered free use of the theater during the summer of 1917, but there were no takers.For a time, the Women's Volunteer War Council operated the casino as a hostess house for soldiers stationed at Fort Williams.
In 1922, the casino and park were officially closed.
Underwood Springs Park
Heading up the coast for Falmouth, trolley-trippers could drink pure spring water and watch Maine's only electric fountain at Underwood Springs Park.
The Portland & Yarmouth Electric Railway opened Underwood Springs Park in the summer of 1899. The park was built on an underground spring that gushed a 250,000 gallons of healthful water every 24 hours.
The park featured a handsome three-story casino set in a beautifully wooded landscape. The casino's dining room was bright and spacious. Visitors dined on shore dinners while enjoying views of the harbor. The casino had a sitting room and a music room decorated with potted palms. The card room was on the second floor and decorated in purple and red. Comfortable arm chairs were upholstered in rich Bagdad cloth with trimmings. Across the hall from the card room was the smoking room, in red. A large dance hall was located on this floor as well.
Trolley cars loaded with day-trippers departed from Monument Square in Portland for Falmouth every half hour, with additional cars leaving every 15 minutes during peak times. The fare was 20 cents round trip.
The electrical fountain was a popular feature of the park. Every evening between 8 and 9 p.m., an engineer operated the fountain, manipulating its controls to create a shifting rainbow of color in the water.
Underwood's open air theater offered nightly entertainment after the fountain show. Vaudeville acts, under the direction of the Gorman Brothers of Medford, Massachusetts, came through every week. The annual appearance of celebrated song and dance team Primrose and West was greatly anticipated by theater-goers.
Few remains of Underwood Springs Park can be found today. The casino and theater burned down in 1907 when an improperly placed candle set fire to some draperies.
Park guests and staff hastily organized a bucket brigade from the spring to save the casino, but they were unable to save the buildings. The park was never reopened.
