Opening Day at Rigby Park

The Building of Rigby Park

Excerpted from

A History of Cape Elizabeth, Maine by William Jordan

"Under these circumstances a considerable degree of interest was aroused in 1891 when it was revealed that a professional track was to be build in Cape Elizabeth. Under the auspices of the Maine Mile Track Association the construction of a mile track on the site of what is now the Rigby Rail Yard was contemplated. Among the early supporters of the track were the racing enthusiasts General Charles P. Mattocks and John F. Haines. The association was duly incorporated, with capital stock of $25,000 to sell at ten dollars per square. Approximately 85 acres of land was purchased with shares of stock from H.N. Jose, south-east of Skunk Hill, now Thornton Heights.

Actual construction of the track was entrusted to Seth Griffin of Joliet, Illinois. His experience in the building of rack tracks was very extensive, having constructed the mile track at Nashville, Tennessee, the Ha-Ha Track at Minneapolis, a half-mile track for William Rockefeller at Greenwich, Connecticut, and the track at Narragansett Park, Providence, Rhode Island.

In constructing the track at Rigby Park, as it was to be called, Griffin utilized a system that was perculiarly his own. After excavating the bed of the track, he took tough fibrous turf, cut in pieces about a foot square and laid them edgewise, closely packed, throughout its entire length and breadth. On top of the turf foundation Griffin spread a four inch surface of loam that would pack down, producing ultimately a tenacious spongy mat so essential to the faster tracks of that era. A high water table was necessary to retain the springy quality of the track and was easily achieved at the Rigby site. When finished it was oval in shape with curved ends of seventy rods each in length, the straight sides being ninety rods each in length. This track was considered by Griffin to be his masterpiece, the "acme of tracks," as he expressed it.

The stables were constructed early in 1893 by Henry Soule of Portland. The first to be build was 240 feet in length and 40 feet in width, with the side facing the track two stories in height to accommodate offices and waiting rooms. Three more stables were soon added raising the total number of stalls to one hundred. Approximately 125,000 board feet of lumber were consumed in the construction of these buildings."

Text courtesy of the South Portland Historical Society

News Clippings for the Rigby Park Storyboards
courtesy of Clark P. Thompson,
Founder of Maine's Trotting Horse Heritage Trail