"ROCKLAND BREAKWATER LIGHTOUSE TO BE RAZED - The U.S. Coast Guard has announced it will demolish the unmanned lighthouse which has stood on the breakwater at the entrance to Rockland Harbor since the beginning of the century, but will retain a light tower there as an aid to navigation. The above photo was taken in 1904 when Captain Clifford Robbins of Southwest Harbor was the keeper. The lighthouse and keeper's dwelling were erected after the breakwater was completed in 1899. The 4300-foot breakwater, which protects Rockland Harbor from easterly storms, was eighteen years under construction and required 732,227 tons of stone for a barrier 65 feet high, 175 feet wide at the base and 45 feet at the top." Newspaper article – unknown source – circa 1963. The lighthouse was not demolished.
Clifford M. Robbins, appointed keeper of the lighthouse on November 1, 1902, was born to Howard P. and Eliza Susan Tarr Robbins on February 23, 1880 in Tremont, Maine. Clifford married Pansy B. Lovering on December 26, 1899 in Tremont, Maine. Pansy was born in 1881 in Concord, New Hampshire. Clifford M. Robbins and his wife, Pansy B. Lovering Robbins both died in Bar Harbor, Maine in 1967. Clifford's father, Howard P. Robbins was also a lighthouse keeper there.
“Howard P. Robbins, his son Cliff, Cliff’s wife Pansy, and their daughter Evelyn lived at the light on the breakwater. There was a stationery engine with a double 8 foot flywheel used to operate the compressor for the fog horn. Cliff taught Pansy to operate the engine so he could go scalloping in the winter. A Coast Guard inspector had to come out to inspect and be sure she was strong enough to operate it. One time her dress caught in the flywheel. She went head over heels. It didn’t hurt her any – she was young then and she was rugged and tough.” – Ralph Stanley – September 26, 2007
Rockland Breakwater is registered as a National Historic Place - 81000067
