Rockland's main commercial street is lined with well-preserved nineteenth-century commercial buildings — Italianate brick storefronts, granite facades, and Victorian commercial architecture at a scale that reflects Rockland's mid-century prosperity as a major lime-quarrying and coastal shipping center.
The street is more lively than many comparable Maine downtowns, with year-round retail, cafes, galleries, and the Strand Theatre (a restored 1923 cinema) all active. Walking the length of Main Street gives a good sense of the town's architectural character and its ongoing emergence as a small art community. Several of the galleries are worth looking into; the area has attracted artists because of the Farnsworth and because rents remain low compared to Camden.