Fort Williams

Harbor Defenses of Portland

CDSG REPRESENTATIVE SITE VISIT REPORT

Fort Name: Fort Williams, Harbor Defenses of Portland, Maine, 1899-1963.

Date of Visit: June 2006.

Current Site Name: Fort Williams Park, Town of Cape Elizabeth, 1000 Shore Road.

Site Use: A town park with athletic fields, tennis courts, walking trails, picnic areas, beach, child care facility, museum, and a number of surviving tactical and non-tactical fort structures.

Public Access: The site is open to the public with no fee.

Dates and Hours of Operation: The park is open from sunrise to sunset, daily, year round.

Type of Programs Offered at the Site:

There is an Outdoor Interpretive Center in emplacement two of Battery Blair. Interpretive plaques are mounted near each surviving battery and building.

The Museum at Portland Head, located in the park, chronicles the history of Portland Head Lighthouse, Portland harbor, and the defenses at Portland Head. One room of the museum is devoted to Fort Williams with photographs, artifacts and a scale model of the fort. The adjacent museum shop carries copies of Ken Thompson’s history of Portland Head Light and Fort Williams.

Dates and Hours of Operation: Museum: weekends from mid-April through May, and from November through mid-December. The museum and gift shop are open daily from 10 AM to 4 PM from June though October. Admission: $2.00; 6 and under free.

Restoration Projects: The roof of the secondary double mine station and the transformer building have been replaced.

Overall Condition of the Site: Most of the buildings were taken down and the large batteries filled during the creation of the park in the 1960s. The surviving batteries have not been maintained, but the park itself is well maintained.

Tactical Structures:

Battery Keyes (2-3 inch pedestal guns) is in relatively good condition, but the parapet of gun number one was removed, probably by the military in the 1950s. The CRF station adjacent to the battery needs replacement roof supports in the observing slit.

Battery Hobart (1-6 inch Armstrong gun) survives in good condition, but the entrance to the magazine has been covered. Hobart was built into the uncompleted 1870s battery and a magazine with its entrance covered can be seen just to the south of Hobart. The wood-framed primary double mine station stood in front of the concrete retaining wall between Hobart and the magazine.

Battery Sullivan (3-10 inch DC guns) and Battery DeHart (2-10 inch DC guns) have been buried to the tops of their parapets. The National Guard fired its 155 mm mobile guns in front of Battery Sullivan, and the dug-in area where they were set up is visible.

Battery Blair (2-12 inch DC guns): Emplacement one is buried to the top of the parapet. Emplacement two is buried to the top of the loading platform, and interpretative panels giving a history of the fort have been installed on the walls. Fencing has been installed along the edges of the parapet.

AMTB Battery 961: The 90-mm gun block of gun two has been incorporated into the landscaping of a walkway south of the light house and the remains of its magazine can be seen behind it. Gun one’s block is buried.

Battery Garesche’ (2-6 inch DC guns) has lost the metal rear stairs and landing leading to the BC station and has suffered vandalism, especially its latrine. Garesche’ became an AA battery after World War I, and the two 3 inch gun blocks on its parapet are in good condition.

Other Tactical Structures:

The original wood-framed double secondary mine station sits on top of the Battery Keyes’s magazines; its roof has been repaired.

The concrete base of the hydrogen generator building that supported the fort’s observation balloon can be seen on the north edge of the beach of Ship Cove.

Remains of a concrete tramway that ran from a torpedo storehouse, cable tank, service dynamite room and mine loading room near the hydrogen generator building can be seen running south and east along Ship Cove to the remains of the mine wharf. Two cable huts can be seen in the underbrush on the south side of the beach.

The mine casemate is built into the side of the cliff on the south side on Ship Cove. It was used into the 1990s by local Civil Defense, and is not open to the public.

The protected fire control switchboard building can be seen on the south side of the road as you enter the park. The floor has collapsed and the entrance is sealed.

The central electric powerhouse and brick transformer building survive in good condition next to the entrance road.

The remains of the battery commander’s station which was used as the Harbor Entrance Control Station for Portland during World War II can be seen at the south end of officers’ row. The roof was removed and the station filled to the bottom of the observing slit.

The concrete foundations of a brick fire commander’s station, a line of Barrancas-style cement plaster observation stations, a dormitory, fire control switchboard building and latrine can be located in the woods near the south boundary of the fort.

The foundation and counterweight for the fort’s disappearing searchlight can be found next to the fire commander’s station. The concrete footings for the fort’s two radio towers can be located on the parapet in front of the disappearing searchlight.

Non-tactical Structures:

The Goddard Mansion, whose stone walls survive, predates the fort and was purchased by the army and used as nonj-commissioned officers quarters.

The fort’s fire station survives in good condition just north of the parade ground.

A wooden band stand is located on the south side of the parade ground and a circular stone bandstand can be found on the north side of the parade ground, near the concrete bleachers, all in excellent condition.

A single officer’s quarters and the fort’s bachelor officers’ quarters survive in good condition near the south west corner of the parade ground. Behind them stands a large garage for officers’ cars.

The fort’s artillery engineer’s storehouse, a gun shed for the fort’s four 155 mm mobile guns, and the militia storehouse remain in good condition near the officers’ garage.

The National Guard Camp was located south of the gun shed, and a few of the concrete bases on which the guard set up its tents each summer can be found on the west end of the camp next to the woods.

Protective Status: The site is not protected.

Current Site Owner: Town of Cape Elizabeth, Maine.

Site Supervisor: Robert Malley, Director, Public Works, Town of Cape Elizabeth

10 Cooper Drive, Cape Elizabeth, ME 04107

Phone: 207-799-4151

Email: cepwdir@maine.rr.com

Web site: www.capeelizabeth.com/tfort.html

The Museum at Portland Head

Manager: Jeanne Gross

P.O. Box 6260

Cape Elizabeth, ME 04107

Phone: 207-799-2661