Unique Characteristics
Olympic marathon winner Joan Benoit Samuelson and Academy Award winning director John Ford are natives of Cape Elizabeth
  • Cape Elizabeth is the birthplace of legendary movie director John Ford.
  • Joan Benoit Samuelson, the first winner of the Women's Olympic Marathon was raised in Cape Elizabeth and graduated from Cape Elizabeth High School. The town has honored her with a life-size bronze sculpture, by Cape Elizabeth sculptor Edward Materson, in front of the Thomas Memorial Library on Scott Dyer Road.
  • Town students typically rank first in Maine in statewide academic achievement examinations.
  • The Town contains Portland Head Light, the most photographed lighthouse in the world.
  • Edward Hopper's painting, "Lighthouse Hill", showing Cape Elizabeth Light at Two Lights, is the country's most famous lighthouse painting. It is part of the collection of the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art.
  • The largest employer in town is the Cape Elizabeth School Department.
  • The Town has more parkland and permanently dedicated open space than any other community in Cumberland County.
  • Cape Elizabeth has the longest growing season in Maine.
  • The Cape Elizabeth Refuse Disposal Area is the center of political campaigning in town and United States Senators have been seen there helping citizens empty material out of their vehicles.
  • The Town runs a gift shop and operates a non-denominational historic church.
  • The Town has no railroads and the closest Interstate Highway is 5 miles away.