The population was 3,925 at the 2020 census,[3] and it is home to part of Sebago Lake State Park.
Farming was limited by the soil, which consisted of gravelly loam, its surface strewn with glacial erratic boulders.
[4] Named for Naples, Italy,[5] the town was incorporated on March 4, 1834,[6] from parts of Otisfield, Harrison, Raymond and Bridgton.
The Songo Lock, completed two years before town incorporation, linked Long Lake and Brandy Pond with Sebago Lake, allowing passage of boats from Harrison to Portland through the Cumberland and Oxford Canal in Standish.
It was designed by John Calvin Stevens, who reduced by two-fifths a plan originally created for the ill-fated Metallak Hotel in Colebrook, New Hampshire.
While under construction, the Metallak was destroyed in April 1893 during a violent windstorm, and its investors abandoned the project.
The Bay of Naples Inn, which faced Mount Washington and the east side of the White Mountains, was a popular resort during the early 20th century.
Automobile tourists began arriving after designation of the Theodore Roosevelt International Highway in 1919 (identified as United States Route 302 since 1935).
[8] The Bay of Naples Inn remained open through the 1951 season, but in 1964 was deemed unprofitable and razed.
Water bodies that are adjacent to, or within Naples include: As of the census[11] of 2010, there were 3,872 people, 1,579 households, and 1,094 families living in the town.