A SLICE OF COAST GUARD HISTORY—

The Gilbert’s Bar House of Refuge, Stuart, FL

Imagine for a moment, the east coast of Florida being sparsely populated.  

That’s the way it was just 135 years ago; except for black bears, jaguars and mosquitoes in swarms they had to be physically whisked away before entering a dwelling—or even some primitive sleeping accommodation.

Sailing ships of that era plied the coast with maritime commerce sometimes foundering in storms and plunging their surviving crews onto a desolate shoreline where they were exposed to the above terrors of insects and animals plus starvation and thirst.

Further north, the young country’s coastline was then more populated and a predecessor to the US Coast Guard, The US Life-Saving Service, was handling the rescue service for shipwrecked mariners.

Because of the continual loss of life and property due to shipwrecks along Florida’s desolate coastline, the government in 1876 constructed 10 houses of refuge about 26 miles apart up and down the coast.

They had no lifesaving crews like those at stations farther north, but were manned by a keeper and his family and kept stocked with clothing, food, water and medicine for shipwrecked mariners who found their way to one of the houses.

 

After storms the keeper and his family would walk the shoreline as far as possible from their house searching for shipwreck victims.

In 1915 the lifesaving service and the US Revenue Cutter Service merged to form the US Coast Guard and the Gilbert’s Bar house became coast guard station #207.

During World War One there was a crew of five stationed there.  During World War ll German U-Boats were torpedoing shipping along the coast so a lookout tower and other buildings were built on the property.

Today, this House of Refuge near Stuart, Florida is the only one of those ten houses that survives.

It sat empty after the war until 1953 when local officials bought the building and 16.8 acres of land from the US Government for $168.  In 1955 what is known today as the Historical Society of Martin County went to work to preserve the building for use as a museum.

In a pleasant irony it still maintains its role of being a place of refuge—this time and continuing to this day as a refuge for sea turtles.