A Brief History of Rockland

LimeRock Inn is tucked away on a quiet street in Rockland’s Historic District just steps from downtown where you’ll find world-class museums, art galleries, fine dining, shopping, and the ferry terminal for Vinalhaven, North Haven and Matinicus, as well as "mid-coast Maine's most beautiful ocean walk" as described by Down East Magazine.

This beautiful, turreted Victorian mansion is an exquisite example of Queen Anne architecture in the Eastlake style, reminiscent of a gracious era in the late 19th century. The home was built in 1892 for Charles E. Littlefield when Rockland was at its peak.

The granite quarried in Rockland and surrounding communities was being used to build cathedrals, federal buildings, and monuments across the country, while a deep deposit of pure limestone provided the plaster and mortar that built the foundations of Boston and New York City. Between 1850 and 1890, Boston grew from under 140,000 to almost half a million residents. In just 25 years, the “Back Bay” was transformed from a swampy Charles River basin to a posh neighborhood with thousands of luxury brownstones. New York City added more than a million residents over the same period and Brooklyn grew from fewer than 100,000 to more than 800,000 people!

The Brooklyn Bridge, built with pink granite from Vinalhaven and completed in 1883, was just one of a dizzying number of extraordinary projects built in the latter half of the 19th century. Mid-coast Maine limestone and granite were the bedrock for this massive growth. During this era, Rockland had 12 lime quarries, 125 lime kilns operating day and night, 3 ship-building yards, and hundreds of transport vessels. By the end of the 19th century, Rockland had become the 4thbusiest port on the East Coast.

We must not forget, however, that the history of this area began well before the 1800s. Wawenocks and other Penobscot people had been fishing, clamming, and seal hunting at Catawamteak (Great Landing Place) for thousands of years before European exploration began around 1600. Then, for more than 150 years, European settlers encroached on these lands, creating conflict, even kidnapping and killing native people.

In 1767, John Lermond, and his brothers, established a logging camp at Catawamteak, which would eventually become Lermond Cove in Shore Village of East Thomaston. This was part of a 567,000-acre tract of land that had been granted to Brigadier General Samuel Waldo after serving in King George’s War. It was subsequently bequeathed to his daughter, who was married to the Royal Secretary of Massachusetts, and then to her daughter, Lucy Flucker, who married Revolutionary War General Henry Knox.

Knox was a bookstore owner in Boston before joining the militia in 1772, but he became a driving force in the American Revolution: fighting at Bunker Hill, retrieving the guns from Ticonderoga, leading the Crossing of the Delaware, and fortifying Valley Forge.  He was at George Washington’s side for 20 years, eventually becoming the Commander of West Point and the first Secretary of War. Upon his retirement in 1796, Henry and Lucy moved to Thomaston and built “Montpelier” where the General Henry Knox Museum stands today. General Knox died in 1806, and the estate was sold off in pieces. Present day Rockland separated from Thomaston in 1848 and was incorporated as a city in 1854.  Rockland became the seat of Knox County in 1860.