In 1912, following the drowning of a prominent citizen, Dr. Lyman Haskell and Clarence MacDonald established and trained Florida’s first U.S. Volunteer Life Saving Corps at this location to protect bathers on Jacksonville Beach, then called Pablo Beach. On April 17, 1914, the American National Red Cross chartered the lifeguard unit as its first American Red Cross Volunteer Life Saving Corps in the U.S., and it served as a training model for other beaches around Florida. The corps celebrated 100 years of uninterrupted volunteer service here in 2012 after recording more than 1,500 life-saving rescues and 1.3 million volunteer hours at the site. Since 1913, three permanent stations have stood here. The present station, built of concrete block and stucco in the Art Moderne style, was designed by architect Jefferson D. Powell and completed in 1948. Among the corps’ traditions is the Annual Ocean Marathon Swim, sponsored continuously by the Meninak Club of Jacksonville since 1934.
