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Rockland Rocks

Written by Marti Mayne

Friday, 02 March 2007

Rockland

There, it’s done!” exclaimed Bob Hastings, Executive Director of the Penobscot Bay Regional Chamber of Commerce, as he stood back to admire the world’s tallest lobster trap Christmas tree. Rather than the traditional live tree, this holiday symbol would represent Rockland’s distinction as the Lobster Capital of the Universe. Prior to the debut, this fervent chamber exec’s days had been spent painting the donated lobster traps and constructing a pyramid of green traps, white lights and red and green lobster buoys. As he gazed at his creation, Hastings knew he had created a masterpiece, color-coordinated for the holidays.

Rockland

The next day Hastings was surprised to find a purple and yellow buoy hanging from the tree. A few hours later there was an orange one, then a blue polka-dotted one. Where were they coming from? Then it dawned on him, and he smiled. One by one, the local lobstermen were hanging their signature-colored buoys on the branches. Hastings knew then that the tree was more than an entry in a record book; it was emblematic of how this former rough-and-tumble town had come together as a community.
It’s for incidents like this that Rockland is called The Real Maine. The appeal of the town can be found in its galleries and museums, but its roots are in the real people welcoming tourists to a genuine Maine community. “Next year,” Hastings vowed, “the tree will be even bigger.”

Rockland

Ask Hastings about the best day he’s had this year, and he’ll tell you it was the day he guided a friend through Rockland’s newest signature landmark, the Maine Lighthouse Museum. Visiting after decades away from Rockland, Hasting’s friend was stunned by the renaissance the town has enjoyed. Once home to lime quarries, fish processing plants and motorcycle gangs, Rockland is now a thriving community of world-class museums, art galleries, fine dining, specialty stores and premier inns all focused on providing a quality travel experience. The transformation has been gradual over the past decade, and it’s one of Hasting’s success stories.
Dave Hoch, volunteer for the Rockland Historical Society, as well as the town’s only surviving “limeologist,” loves to share stories about Rockland’s distinctive history, especially ones about the importance of its lime industry. As Hoch tells it, there was plenty of brick in the 1730s, but not enough mortar to build the burgeoning cities of Boston and New York. When millions of tons of high quality limestone, a key ingredient in mortar, were discovered just a mile from tidal waters, the regional lime industry was born. For centuries, this lime quarry, deepest in the world, was the area’s largest employer and it gave the locale its first name, Lime City. Lime rock was blasted from the quarry, then hand carried in ‘head-sized’ pieces to waiting wagons and transported to a nearby kiln. The resulting quicklime was then packed and shipped from the growing port. The industry surrounding lime rock led to the renaming of Lime City to Rockland, with a stint as Shore Village between names. More than a million barrels of lime were produced annually before the high quality lime was quarried-out in the 1940s.

Rockland

   In the early 1920s, as the lime industry began to wane, fishing became the mainstay of Rockland. During the World Wars, demand for sardines led to development of many sardine factories. Additionally, ground fishing grew as American’s taste for seafood developed. Rockland became Maine’s largest fishing port, third in New England behind only Gloucester and Boston. Fish processing plants, including Bird’s Eye, National Sea Products, General and O’Hara, flash froze ground fish, redfish and lobsters brought in from as far as George’s Bank. During its heyday, Rockland shipped more lobster than any other place in the country and Rockland’s harbors offered the richest lobster grounds in the region, giving the town its unchallenged claim as Lobster Capital of the Universe.
   Fishing and lime industries brought laborers and with the laborers came a rough clientele. Until the mid 1990s, motorcycle gangs milled around seedy bars, storefronts sat empty on Main Street, and few residents had pride in the downtown community. Enter Bob Hastings, a real estate developer with a record of bringing downtown regions back to life. Impressed by the investment MBNA credit card company had made in the region, he saw potential in this coastal Maine community. People of means had invested in the Farnsworth Art Museum, and its world-class collection of Wyeths drew art lovers to the scene. Artists and art collectors attracted galleries to fill vacant storefronts, and investors began devoting time and funds to a renovation of the historic Spear block. The Strand Theater was purchased, renovated and preserved as an architectural and cultural treasure. The city sold the old Shore Village Lighthouse Museum and a small group of partners, led by Hastings, worked to save the invaluable collection.
Their collaboration culminated in the new Maine Discovery Center and Maine Lighthouse Museum. The sardine plants closed, the harbor self-cleaned and boaters returned once again. As downtown began to revive, merchants formed an association and pride in the community slowly renewed. Long gone are the fish packing plants and limekilns. Newly entrenched is tourism with an infrastructure to support it.
   Over the past 2 years, visits to the region have increased by over one thousand percent. There’s a feeling of excitement and a sense of gentrification that has renewed Rockland’s downtown, mixed with a working seaport for that “real Maine” experience. Fine dining restaurants mix with specialty food shops and a bookstore where locals sip gourmet coffees and greet one another over the local paper and used books. Historic inns offer premier lodging, and ferries transport islanders back and forth from a modern terminal. In the summer, the largest fleet of historic windjammers in the country makes Rockland their home, gliding regally in and out of the harbor. And to kick off the holidays, Santa arrives on a lobster boat–apropos for the Lobster Capital of the Universe. There’s a sense of the town’s glory days preserved by the 145 buildings on the National Historic Register, along with both trolley and horse-drawn wagon tours. Museums, historic theatres, schools of contemporary art, fine furniture design and boat building offer insight into the legacy of coastal Maine. Although the tempo changes from summer’s bustle to winter’s tranquility, the community always surges with a sense of culture, discovery and maritime legacy.
   Year round, Rockland’s renaissance continues to fuel culture, history and an exhilaration that is contagious among visitors and residents alike. Call it resurgence, call it a revival, either way, Rockland rocks!

Marti Mayne
		About the author:
		Marti Mayne has taken 20 years of marketing experience and dedicated it to providing marketing and public relations services for the tourism, and bed and breakfast industry with her company Maynely Marketing. Specializing in public relations and marketing for vacation destinations, country inns, and bed and breakfasts, Maynely Marketing works with convention and visitors bureaus, state lodging and bed and breakfast associations, country inns/bed and breakfast consortiums and individual country inns/bed and breakfasts to offer consultation in development of press kits, press releases, press FAM tours, and placement of articles in local, state and national publications.
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 27 March 2007 )

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