Matt Rosenberg has worked as the keeper at Nubble Light for 15 seasons and is a teacher at York High School. (Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer)

YORK — For many, Cape Neddick Light Station is a historic Maine landmark. For keeper Matt Rosenberg, it is an office, a workshop and, at the end of a long day, a place for quiet reflection.

Nicknamed Nubble Light after the 2.8-acre, tide-cut island it occupies, the lighthouse has stood about 100 yards off Cape Neddick’s eastern tip for nearly 150 years.

A red brick oil house, boathouse, workshop and Victorian keeper’s house cluster around the tower, which has a winding iron staircase that climbs up to a watch room 88 feet above sea level. Jutting out into the Atlantic between Portsmouth and Portland, the tower’s fourth-order Fresnel lens is a crucial navigational landmark for passing ships.

After 15 seasons on the island, Rosenberg, 52, said its pull has never faded.

“Working out there and having it to yourself, being responsible for something — especially something that’s so important — there’s a real sense of purpose,” he said.

A teacher by trade, Rosenberg is busy during the school year with lesson-planning for his English and digital media classes and advising the student newspaper at York High School. From April through November, he maintains Nubble’s historic grounds.

As a commuting keeper who lives in Wells with his family, Rosenberg said some mornings begin before sunrise, when the U.S. Coast Guard needs transportation to the island on a favorable tide. Other days end close to midnight, he said, when an approaching storm means another trip across the channel for weatherproofing.

The Portland Press Herald visited three lighthouses in Maine to find out more about the lives of their modern-day caretakers, including two women from Nashville who are the keepers this season at the Seguin Island Light Station.

Maine’s lighthouses have long served as enduring symbols of the state’s maritime history. Rosenberg said preservation is front of mind as he completes his daily tasks.

“If something from 1879 starts to erode from rust, I can take the rust off, but I’m also taking off the history,” Rosenberg said. “Once you lose it, you can put something in its place, but it’s not the same. ”

KEEPING UP WITH REPAIRS Nubble Light keeper Matt Rosenberg mows the lawn on July 1. (Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer)

Rosenberg said he first learned about the keeper opening through a notice in the Portsmouth Herald.

He said he thought it was a shot in the dark, but, at his wife’s encouragement, applied anyway and landed the gig out of about 65 applicants.

The town of York assumed ownership of the 41-foot cast-iron tower from the Coast Guard in 1997. As a York Parks and Recreation employee, Rosenberg said he coordinates with Parks Superintendent Ryan Coite about the island’s maintenance and repair needs.

Coite said Rosenberg keeps a keen eye on the lighthouse year round, conducting monthly inspections and ferrying contractors and technicians to the island for larger maintenance projects. He called Rosenberg “an excellent ambassador of the lighthouse,” citing the keeper’s deep knowledge of its history and enthusiasm for sharing it with visitors.

According to Rosenberg, his responsibilities run the gamut: routine inspection and cleaning of the keeper’s house, monitoring storm damage and weatherproofing, carpentry projects and an ever-growing list of repairs. 

Rosenberg joked that every spring he starts with a lengthy maintenance list that never seems to get shorter, with salt air, wind and weather ensuring there is always another repair waiting.

“The elements are constantly fighting you,” Rosenberg said. “You can’t let it slip. These buildings don’t forgive deferred maintenance.”

Rosenberg said his favorite task is mowing the island’s lawn. The 6½-hour job gives him time to settle into a rhythm, listening to the Grateful Dead through his headphones. What might seem monotonous elsewhere, he said, has become a meditative practice.

He is quick to point out that the work extends beyond one person, crediting the parks and recreation department and more than 20 volunteers who help maintain the grounds and gift shop at Sohier Park, on the mainland.

“We have an incredible volunteer organization. Some of them have been here for over 20 years,” Rosenberg said. “That’s one of the most overlooked and special things about this place: people love it so much they want to come every single week just to give to it.”

Rosenberg said that before becoming the lighthouse keeper, he worked in landscaping, plumbing and carpentry, and spent a decade guiding whitewater rafting trips.

Matt Rosenberg hops in a boat to row from Sohier Park over to the island in York on July 1. (Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer)

There is no bridge to the island. It can only be reached by boat and, save for the lucky picnic raffle winners, is not open to the public, Rosenberg explained, citing safety concerns with the steep surrounding cliffs. Rosenberg believes the inaccessibility is part of its enduring appeal.

“The fact that people can’t go there means everyone gets to enjoy it equally. Instead of some people being on the island and others watching from shore, we’re all out here together, just gazing at it,” he said from Sohier’s rocky shore.

Getting there himself is often challenging enough, Rosenberg said.

Nubble’s northeastern exposure, he said, makes the rowboat crossing unpredictable.

“Sometimes, the weather just wins,” Rosenberg said, and he’s unable to reach the island.

A motorized tram helps shuttle supplies across the water. Though Rosenberg joked it carries only supplies — not hopeful passengers.

While work on the island is often solitary, Rosenberg said time spent at Sohier Park allows him to greet visitors.

“Seeing all the people who come from all over the world and how much they enjoy it — they just bring the energy,” Rosenberg said. “You don’t have to create energy for this job. It’s already here.”

‘A WAY TO KEEP TIME’ Keeper Matt Rosenberg rows toward Nubble Light from Sohier Park on June 12. (Chloe Liversidge/Staff Writer)

Years of caretaking have taught Rosenberg to notice the small, hidden wonders of the island, he said. 

He noted wildflowers blooming in cracks in the rocky cliffs, tomato plants that survive the salt spray, harbor seal pups that haul themselves out on the rocks below, a trap room off the keeper’s kitchen that houses an old coal scuttle and the finials on the tower railing, which are miniature cast-iron replicas of Nubble Light.

During his first season, Rosenberg said, Nubble’s last Coast Guard keeper told him about the tradition of Whale Rock, a whale-shaped boulder on the island that he said generations of keepers have painted with eyes and a smiling mouth.  

Wanting to share those quieter moments, Rosenberg started photographing the island several years ago after visitors repeatedly asked what it looked like up close. Under the handle @nubblelightkeeper, he shares photos and stories from the island.

“The amount of love I’ve received from strangers is remarkable,” Rosenberg said of his over 30,000 Instagram followers. “You hear people’s incredible stories of love and loss. I don’t know how many jobs give you that kind of intimate connection with people you’ve never met.”

Throughout the year, Rosenberg said, families return to Sohier to recreate photographs taken decades earlier, sometimes standing in the very same spot wearing the very same clothes.

“It’s not only important to the people of York. It’s important to a lot of people who visit Maine,” Rosenberg said. “They’ve made it part of their lives. The lighthouse is a point of return, in that way — a way to keep time.”

That tradition has become part of his own family’s history, as well.

Rosenberg remembers visiting Prospect Harbor Point Lighthouse as a child while his father was stationed there with the Coast Guard. Rosenberg’s son, Max, now 21, recalled summers scraping paint alongside his father before taking a job leading boat excursions to Nubble.

Rosenberg said he hopes his kids will inherit the keeper’s role one day, but doesn’t plan to retire any time soon. 

Matt Rosenberg walks across the grounds of the island on July 1. (Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer)

At the end of nearly every workday, Rosenberg said he allows himself one final ritual before rowing back to shore. He sits on one of the benches overlooking the Atlantic for a few uninterrupted minutes to reflect.

“That’s one of the things I value most — being connected to these strangers who were all, at one point, working on keeping this alive in a place where it’s really hard to keep anything alive,” he said. “You just feel the weight of history.”