Gilbert's Bar House of Refuge is the only remaining one of nine on the Florida east coast commissioned in 1875 for the U.S. Life-Saving Service. Its keepers provided shelter, food, clothing, and transportation to survivors of shipwrecks and storms at sea. It remained in U.S. Coast Guard service through World War I, was acquired as a Maritime Museum in 1955 by the Martin County Historical Society, and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.