Rockland Breakwater Lighthouse

09/18/2025

A huge thank you to Lighthouse Super Volunteers Craig Mathieson and Ken Shaw, and Chad Blake and his Redzone team for figuring out what was wrong with the Breakwater Lighthouse we**am, heading out there multiple times, and finally getting things back online! We're immensely grateful to you all!

At the end of a 7/8-mile-long granite breakwater, the iconic Rockland Breakwater Lighthouse has been the centerpiece of Rockland Harbor since 1902.

09/13/2025

Maine Open Lighthouse Day is Today!
Join us at the Rockland Breakwater Lighthouse today, Saturday, September 13, from 10 am to 1 pm as we open the Lighthouse! Volunteers will be on site as well to answer questions!
https://rocklandmaine.gov/397/The-Rockland-Breakwater-Lighthouse
Photo by Jim Dugan

09/11/2025

Join us at the Rockland Breakwater Lighthouse on Saturday, September 13, from 10 am to 1 pm as we open the Lighthouse for Maine Open Lighthouse Day! Volunteers will be on site as well to answer questions!
https://rocklandmaine.gov/397/The-Rockland-Breakwater-Lighthouse
Photo by Jim Dugan

08/28/2025

Our wonderful Lighthouse working group members have been laboring non-stop to get the we**am back up and running. It's finally back up! We do ask for your patience as it is still sometimes finicky...

At the end of a 7/8-mile-long granite breakwater, the iconic Rockland Breakwater Lighthouse has been the centerpiece of Rockland Harbor since 1902.

06/13/2025

Good News friends!!
The US Army Corps of Engineers (USACOE) has put $50,000.00 in this year's federal budget to study capping the Rockland Breakwater!

After the Easterly storms of '22 and '24 and the increasingly regular tidal overtopping (indicated by that dark blue-green algae that gives Maine its distinctive high tide line that is more and more visible on the surface of the breakwater) Harbormaster Molly Eddy wrote a letter to the USACOE last August requesting that we get put on their list of projects to study. She got notice that we had been put on that list but USACOE, by necessity, tends to move slowly and was gobsmacked to get an email from one of Senator Collins' staffers asking about it and notifying her that they had put in a budget request for FY26!

A bit of background - the Breakwater was initially approved in 1880 and construction was complete by late 1899. Almost immediately it was discovered to be easily overtopped and they put a 4' cap on it. Then they had to build the lighthouse because while the breakwater gave us a safe harbor of refuge, it Also became a navigational hazard.

Rockland harbor is one of the largest harbors in the state geographically and a large portion of the waterfront is man-made fill and relatively low-lying. The breakwater effectively dampens the wave action by absorbing it in the stones and the gaps between the stones. The gaps actually a feature and the reason it's been able to withstand as much as it has for so long. The absorption properties disrupt the frequency (speed) and amplitude (height) of the wave action which affords the harbor, vessels within it and the waterfront around it relative safety. The big Easterly storms showed us that it is still doing its job, just maybe not as effectively as it once did.

If you are so inclined, please contact your federal representatives and encourage them to support the USACOE in their efforts to look after our city.

Caption: Video taken Oct 27 2023 near the lighthouse and scanning the breakwater.

04/16/2025

03/19/2025

Thank you Maine Windjammer Association! Your sold-out fundraising dinner raised $2,200 for the Lighthouse! We are so grateful!

01/30/2025

Should be a wonderfully delicious way to benefit the Rockland Breakwater Lighthouse!

Chef Anna Miller of Schooner Ladona will be teaming up with Chef O.B. O’Brien of the Lewis R. French for a very special evening benefiting the Rockland Breakwater Lighthouse.

Saturday, March 1, 6:00 to 9:00 pm
The Carriage House is located at 9 Green Street in Thomaston, Maine

4 course, all-inclusive dinner. $150 per person
For tickets, click on this link:

https://uprootpieco.square.site/product/windjammer-dinner-3-1/414?cs=true&cst=custom

01/08/2025

Yesterday morning, members of the Coast Guard and Rockland Harbormaster Molly Eddy went out to the Rockland Breakwater Lighthouse to strip the storm-damaged siding off the eastern side of the lighthouse.

Coastline Construction is scheduled to execute repairs to that section on Wednesday, January 8. They will be re-siding it with oil-dipped, white-stained cedar shake with the approval of the State Historic Preservation Office.

There will also be an underlayment to aid in the resiliency and preservation of the interior of the building. This has also been approved by the State Historic Preservation Office. The oil-dipped shingles will help reduce the impact of paint stripping and remediation in a sensitive and difficult-to-control environment.

Edit:
USCG Crew are as follows by Rank:
BOSN2 Jason Latiolais
BMC Thomas Moen
MK2 Zebulon Tingley
MK3 Michael Parker
SN Doro Jobe
SN Leah Cote