ROCKLAND, Maine — It is a dark time for the Maine Lighthouse Museum in Rockland, and the volunteers who run it are desperately hoping to find a clear path through the financial straits that are imperiling the nonprofit’s future.
“We’ve been paying as best we can for years,” volunteer board chairman Paul Dilger said of the museum’s efforts to cover bills that include a $3,500 per month mortgage and $3,000 per month to its condominium association. “It’s never been enough. We just can’t sustain it.”
The problem really started almost a decade ago, Dilger said, when the museum’s board of directors voted in favor of joining a three-way condominium group to purchase 1 Park Drive in Rockland for the price of $575,000. It was 2007, and the midcoast economic climate was shifting. Credit card giant MBNA, which had owned the downtown building and done some work to upgrade it, initially had intended to let the museum use the space for free. But the company was sold to Bank of America, which offered to sell it to the museum and two other entities instead.
The Maine Lighthouse Museum, the Rockland Festival Corporation and the city of Rockland purchased the building, with each of the three paying a share of the expenses based on the square footage they occupy. The lighthouse museum, which is on the street-level floor, pays the largest share of the costs. And while the city and the Rockland Festival Corporation are up to date on their condo fees, the museum is not, owing a total of $150,000 in fees.
“Everybody was so optimistic at the time [of the purchase],” Dilger said. “Everybody thought it’ll happen. We’ll find the money someplace.”
Right now, though, that hope seems remote — even though the community of lighthouse lovers is stepping up to try to relieve some of the financial stress. A fundraising campaign on gofundme.com so far has raised $4,300 of a $15,000 goal, and other people have sent in checks that total several thousand dollars. The campaign was begun after a pipe in the heating and cooling system burst and caused considerable damage when the ceiling collapsed and flooded sections of several rooms.
“It’s heartwarming to get such a strong response,” Dilger said.
But practically speaking, the museum needs to plot a different course to remain viable into the future. Dilger and Volunteer Director Dot Black, whose late husband Ken Black started the museum, said that they have been able to keep up with the monthly mortgage payments — but that’s it.
“I think that for the Maine Lighthouse museum to remain where it’s at, either the condo fees are going to have to go away or the mortgage is going to have to go away,” Dilger said. “Barring that, I just don’t see long-term survivability.”
That would be a sad loss, according to people who love lighthouses.
“I think it’s great,” Brandon Luzzi, a tugboat captain who wandered into the museum over the weekend said when Black turned on the array of flashing Fresnel lights that were salvaged from lighthouses all around Maine.
Ken Black was a Coast Guard veteran who realized that his branch of the military was discarding many priceless historical lighthouse artifacts as it worked to modernize and automate the flashing beacons. He helped to found the American lighthouse preservation movement, and because of his efforts, the Rockland museum has the country’s largest collection of rare lighthouse lenses. After it merged with the Museum of Lighthouse History in Wells, it became the country’s largest lighthouse museum.
A few years ago, when the museum was struggling to raise $50,000 in order to keep its lights on, the president of the Penobscot Bay Region Chamber of Commerce described the museum as a “vital entity” in the city.
Black, who was dusting off displays and getting ready for the mid-March reopening of the museum, said that last year they welcomed 12,500 people, who paid an average of $4.50 each to look at the exhibits. Additional sources of income include the gift shop and membership fees.
When asked if the museum could move into less expensive digs, Dilger said it wouldn’t be easy to do so. The Coast Guard technically owns the collection of historic artifacts and the city of Rockland is responsible for it, he said.
“Only four people are qualified in the United States to move the Fresnel lenses,” he said. “It would probably cost more money to move the museum to another place in town.”
Donations can be made by mail to: Maine Lighthouse Museum, P.O. Box 1116, Rockland, ME 04841. Call 594-3301 or visit www.mainelighthousemuseum.org for more information.