Shortly after the Civil War, Congress saw the need for a federally controlled, unified lifesaving system to offer organized assistance to sailors in peril due to shipwrecks and severe storms.  As a result, the U.S. Lifesaving Service was formed.

Coordinating a lifesaving effort along the then uninhabited and desolate east coast of Florida presented a special challenge.  To address this problem, ten Houses of Refuge were constructed at intervals along the coast, from St. Augustine to the Florida Keys.

Houses of Refuge had no lifesaving crews.  Each House was occupied by a keeper and his family, who would walk the shoreline after storms and search for shipwreck victims.  The keeper was responsible for the station and its equipment and supplies, and was required to keep a daily log and submit wreck reports to the U.S. Lifesaving Service.  In between shipwrecks, theirs was a lonely vigil.