This paper introduces a new multiscale method for nonparametric piecewise polynomial intensity and density estimation of point processes. Fast, piecewise polynomial, maximum penalized likelihood methods for intensity and density estimation are developed. The recursive partitioning scheme underlying these methods is based on multiscale likelihood factorizations which, unlike conventional wavelet decompositions, are very well suited to applications with point process data. Experimental results demonstrate that multiscale methods can outperform wavelet and kernel based density estimation methods.