Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the American government made civil defense a high priority throughout World War II. This coastal watch tower was built and staffed by civilian volunteer spotters from the Ground Observation Corps, the Army Air Forces Aircraft Warning Service/Civil Air Patrol, and the Coast Guard Auxiliary. Armed only with binoculars and a telephone, they watched the skies for air traffic, reported flight plans, and also looked for German U-boats operating just offshore and sinking merchant marine vessels in an effort to disrupt the American war effort. The tower was one of 15,200 observation posts along the Atlantic, Gulf, and Pacific coasts, about one every six miles, forming a virtual picket fence of civilian observers to warn of impending attack. The observation posts were abandoned in May 1944 when it became clear that the Germans no longer threatened the coastline. Although the continental United States did not come under serious attack during the war, this civil defense network gave many people on the home front an important way to serve and fostered esprit de corps among civilians facing the material and emotional strains of wartime America. Few towers survived after the war, and this is one of the last remaining in Florida.