ROCKPORT – Sixty years ago, Rockville, the small Rockport village that lies near Rockland by Chickawaukie Lake, was humming with industry. Lime kilns, a brick yard, schools, post office, cobbler, and a small market were manned by local residents, who came and went to those places from their homes and farms.

Last year, lifelong Rockport resident Vernon Hunter delivered a talk at the Rockville Community Chapel, entitling it, "The Lost Village of Rockville." He told those who gathered on that hot August evening about the days when everyone's house in the town was open to all, when the village was filled with children sliding down an icy Gurney Street onto a frozen lake, and playing Kick the Can in the fields. At one point, Rockville had its own fire station and town hall.

There is a handful of citizens who remember what it was like to live in that close-knit neighborhood, and they have fond memories of growing up there. Others, who are younger, hear those stories and like what they hear. They want to renew the community in Rockville, one built on those same values.

"My family has been here for two-and-a-half years," said Kathleen Meil. "I have the sense that I've come late to the party. It sounds like this was a vibrant Rockville community, one that I would love to see."

Meill was talking with a group of approximately 15 Rockville residents, who gathered Sept. 12 in the Rockville Community Chapel, the old Free Baptist Church that has been tenderly restored over the past decade by the descendents of the Optimistic Club (officially founded Oct. 11, 1911 by the "Ladies of Rockville" to raise funds for the repair of their church). The residents were there with the Rockport Select Board for the first of what is to be a town "Listening Tours", visits made by the board to the five villages that comprise Rockport. The tours will continue through mid-October in Glen Cove, Simonton Corner, West Rockport and Rockport Village. There will also be one session to talk with business owners about business. They are classified as workshops, and the board is convening them to hear what Rockport residents have on their minds, and how they might want to improve community and municipal affairs.

Attendance at the village meetings is not limited to those living in those villages, and the select board encourages residents from any part of town to attend the meetings at their convenience.

In Rockville, the focus was on community strength, and the ideas flowed from a mix of young and old. Some dealt with tangible concerns, such as fixing the crumbling sidewalk (a desire echoed several times during the hour-long discussion); getting more police presence to slow traffic; appealing to the Maine Department of Transporation for traffic calming help, especially at notorious intersections; and providing municipal assistance with booking events at the Chapel.

And in so many words, those who gathered told the Select Board that they wanted to see their village again become vibrant.

"Just make it look better," one citizen said.

The board asked the residents how they saw their village fitting into the bigger town of Rockport, which sprawls for 65 square miles from the coastline, to Chickawaukie Lake, and westward to Grassy Pond and the borders with Hope, Union and Warren.

"Like the poor little stepchild," said another citizen.

Rockville is a residential area in Rockport, more a frame of mind than a defined settlement. It has the feel of a small village, with old capes and farmhouses nestled together, and there is an old sidewalk that lines the old road. The center of it lies just the west of busy Route 17, an arterial highway as designated by the DOT, and which serves as a fast-moving commuter transport between Augusta and Rockland. And traveling on Route 17 through the area, one sees and senses the evidence of community; on one side, an old cemetery, churches, a lake, and some farms; on the other side, more houses, the gardening center Green Thumb and a bucolic pasture that climbs up the edge of Dodges Mountain.

It's a road that some younger parents would like to cross with their children to play at the church playground, but don't dare with strollers.

Rockport Select Board member Geoffrey Parker asked the group if Rockville was populated by younger families who moved there to thrive in a community with neighborly bonds, or if such a social structure is no longer so highly valued.

While some responded, saying the community was more transient and less concerned with connections, Meil said: "It is somewhere in between. The more we hear of what it used to be, the more we miss what isn't here now and we'd like to have it."

The Chapel is currently the cornerstone of the community, an institution that represents what used to be. It has been lovingly restored over the past decade. While once a church and  still so in spirit and ambience, it now serves groups seeking public gathering spaces, or a place to hold weddings or funerals, or just sit quietly in the pews. The chapel was built in 1851, originally as the Free Will Baptist Church, after the congregation split from the mother church in Camden. For more than 100 years, the church was the center of activities for the village until the 1970s, when it was decommissioned and renamed the Rockville Community Chapel. It is the only public building remaining in the village of Rockville.

Today, it is managed by the Rockport Community Chapel Association, a core group of committed citizens, many of them growing older and wanting to pass the torch to a younger crowd. Over the past 10 years, the chapel's ongoing restoration included replacing the roof, repairing the belfry, replacing windows and carpets, painting, polishing and shining. Today it glows beneath that care.

"Obviously, we like green," said Roy Bennett, earning a round of appreciative laughter as everyone in the chapel marveled at the interior paint job. "There are seven different shades of green. It was the ladies who put it together."

'The more we hear of what it used to be, the more we miss what isn't here now and we'd like to have it.'

Like Hunter, whose own roots in Rockville extend back to 1790 and his farming ancestor Benia Barrows, the forebearers of Bennett once lived in the village. Bennett was living in San Diego and checking in periodically with the small village in Maine, where his mother grew up. When he retired a few years ago, he decided to "come back and see what I can do to get this going."

He described his sense of history, and empathy for those who originally built the church in 1851: "There are 14 pews, each held together by many, many screws, some of them 1.5 inches long. I used a power drill to put them back together but I can only imagine guys back then manually screwing the pews down."

He told the Select Board about plans for the Chapel's ongoing restoration, including the goal of putting the steeple back on the roof.

"The town is thrilled with this," said Select Board member Charlton Ames, adding that town officials are proposing the town waive permit fees as a contribution to the effort. That statement earned a round of applause from the citizens.

"What is happening here is really important," said Parker, tying the conversation taking place that evening to similar conversations that are occuring across the country in smaller communities like Rockville.

The discussion ended with suggestions for establishing village connections to the Select Board, perhaps with a designated Rockville advisor, or a select board liason reaching out to each of the villages on a regular basis.

The next Listening Tour by the board will take place in Glen Cove Sept. 18 at 7 p.m. at the Riley School.

The remaining tours are as follows.

• Simonton Corner, Wednesday, Sept. 19, 7 p.m., Rockport Masonic Center

• West Rockport, Tuesday, Sept. 25, 7 p.m., West Rockport Baptist Church

• Rockport Businesses, Tuesday, Oct. 2, 7 p.m., Rockport Opera House Meeting Room

• Rockport Village, Thursday, Oct. 11, 7 p.m., Rockport Town Office

• Listening Tour Recap and Follow-up Workshop, Monday, Oct. 15, 7 p.m., Rockport Opera House Meeting Room