Peaks Island

The island lies approximately three miles from the coast and is accessible by a short 15-20 minute ferry ride on the Casco Bay Lines that delivers you to the Maine State Pier in the Portland Old Port area. The ferry runs 14 trips a day, 6 days a week (9 on Sundays), year-round from 5:45 AM leaving from Portland until 10:55 PM returning from Peaks Island, with a car ferry running until 6:00 PM most days, and then switching to a passenger ferry. During the summer months, 15 trips run a day adding a late boat from Portland leaving at 11:30PM every night. During the winter this late boat runs only on Fridays and Saturdays.

Peaks Island is the most populated island in the Casco Bay, with a winter population of approximately 850. In the summer months, however, the population swells to 4,000 or 5,000. The island has a 130-year-old elementary school serving 54 students from grades K-5. There is also a year-round developmental daycare facility, called the Children’s Workshop, that provides preschool, before- and after-school programs and daycare for ages 2 to 5 years.  Most people commute daily to jobs on the mainland as do middle and senior high-school students. The island is also home to many retirees, and the Fay Garmin house was built as a senior housing community.

Peaks Island is a popular destination during the summer for day-trippers who come to walk the trails, take a bike ride or eat at one of four restaurants, two of which stay open year-round, and a year-round cafe. In addition, the island has two inns, as well as lodging available at the Eighth of Maine Regiment Hall; a year-round grocery store called Hannigan’s, the motto of which “If we don’t have it, you don’t need it”; a post office (04108) and a health center. The City of Portland provides a police station, fire station and a branch of the Portland library, and the Portland Department of Parks and Recreation coordinates programs in the community room. There are several small businesses, an arts and crafts gallery, an ice cream and souvenir shop, the world’s only umbrella-cover museum and a bike rental shop. Peaks Island is also home to three churches and an historical Civil War/local Peaks history museum and cultural center at the Fifth of Maine Regiment hall.

Because of historical development as two distinct villages, the island is naturally separated into neighborhoods. There is the village section of the island, where most of the year-round homes, shops and restaurants are, and the Trefethen-Evergreen section that was originally just a summer colony and has the Trefethen-Evergreen Community Improvement Association Club. There are also scattered homes along the interior and the backshore but, for the most part, these areas remain heavily forested, with much of this area either city or state park land, or owned by the Peaks Island Land Preserve, including Battery Steele, the largest of the World War II military reservations.

Although the Island is a neighborhood in the city of Portland, as a result of a failed secession attempt in 2006-2007, the Portland City Council, with urging from the State and Local Government Committee, set up a seven-person Peaks Island Council to advise the City Council on matters affecting Peaks. The PIC was formally elected by registered Peaks Island voters in the fall of 2007.

Publications & Links

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	An Extra Set of Hands
	Eighth Maine Regiment Memorial
	Peaks Island Library

News

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May 15, 2008 |	Draft Agenda: Maine Island Coalition Meeting
May 14, 2008 |	Casco Bay Affordable Housing Fellow Placement Opportunity
Apr 24, 2008 |	2008 Island Firefighters' Forum
Apr 09, 2008 |	Casco Bay Affordable Housing Minutes March 06, 2008
May 07, 2007 |	Maine Islands Coalition May 7, 2004
Feb 09, 2007 |	Maine Islands Coalition February 9, 2007
May 06, 2005 |	Maine Islands Coalition May 6, 2005

In Working Waterfront

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Five Peaks Island artists to fill GEM Gallery
May 2008

An Unexpected Forest
November 2007