You might have never heard of it, but this little-known area in Martin County has a lot going for it. Hutchinson Island (near Stuart) is home to beautiful beaches with unique limestone outcropping that give them their rocky appearance. A lot of people don’t even realize that we have beaches like this in Florida. When the water slams against the rocks, it can go flying high into the air, which is quite a sight.

Not only is this spot beloved by nature lovers and photographers, it also has a really interesting historical connection.

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It’s home to the only remaining original house of refuge in Florida. (There is a historic life-saving station on Santa Rosa Island, but it is actually an early replacement after the original was destroyed in the devastating 1906 hurricane.)

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Built in 1876, the Gilbert’s Bar House of Refuge is also the oldest building in Martin County.

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Once upon a time, there were nearly a dozen of these structures in the state of Florida. The houses were designed to provide refuge for shipwrecked sailors.

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Like lighthouses, they were occupied by a keeper and his family. They were all designed the same way, with living quarters on the first floor and an attic area equipped with cots and rations to shelter up to 20 men for 10 days.

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These houses were built in the late 1800s when Florida’s Atlantic coast was very sparsely occupied and there was little help for survivors of shipwrecks.

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It’s wonderful that we still have this connection to a long-gone piece of Florida’s history. The house is now occupied by a museum that features antique life-saving equipment and a glimpse of the house as it was in 1904.

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In addition to the house of refuge, you can actually explore a wreck from this period (the Georges Valentine, an Italian brigantine wrecked in 1904), which is now a popular dive site about 100 yards offshore.

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Have you ever visited the Gilbert’s Bar House of Refuge? What’s your favorite Florida landmark?

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