Near this site stood the Biscayne House of Refuge, built in 1876 by executive order of President Ulysses S. Grant as one of five stations erected along Florida's southeast coast by the United States Life Saving Service to save shipwreck survivors from the perils of the desolate shore. After every storm, the keeper and his family searched the beach for castaways, furnishing food, clothing, shelter, and a safe return to civilization. The House of Refuge remained Semper Paratus, always ready, until modern settlement gradually replaced the wilderness. It was damaged beyond repair by the Great Hurricane of 1926 and was never rebuilt. In 1941, the property was conveyed to the City of Miami Beach for use as a public park in exchange for the construction of a new island and station on the MacArthur Causeway, and since then the United States Coast Guard, into which the Life Saving Service became incorporated in 1915, has operated from Causeway Island as an integral part of the Miami Beach community. The other Houses of Refuge built in 1876 were located in Fort Lauderdale, Orange Grove (Delray Beach), Gilbert's Bar (Stuart), and Indian River Inlet (Fort Pierce), and only the Gilbert's Bar House of Refuge remains standing today.