A U.S. lighthouse supply depot was built at St. Joseph in 1893. For a quarter century, this depot equipped all of Lake Michigan's lights with materials ranging from lenses to lamp oil. Operations of the St. Joseph Depot were transferred to Milwaukee in 1917. In later years, the site housed branches of the military, and the U.S. Naval Reserve operated there from 1918 to 1950. Following this service, the site operated as a restaurant in the 1990s. Two buildings, the lens repair shop and workers barracks, were torn down, but a main storage structure and an officers' residence remain. In 2003, the St. Joseph River Yacht Club acquired the site. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, it survives as one of only two historic lighthouse depots in Michigan.