abandoned coast guard station

One of a series of ten pencil sketches done by my father, John G Goebel of Baltimore, MD between 1977 and 1984. They consist of lighthouses, seascapes, and architectural landmarks located in the mid-atlantic region. Dad was a lover of the beach all his life until his death at 59 in 1984.

Dimensions are 11x17 and are printed on high-grade white colored stock. If matted and mounted, the prints are suitable for framing in a 16x20 standard frame.

The Delmarva Life-Saving stations which opened in 1875 were Green Run and Assateague Beach, both on Assateague Island. Additional boathouses were located on Hog, Cobb and Smith Islands in Virginia. Indian River Inlet (still standing) and Cape Henlopen stations in Delaware followed the next year. Opening in 1878 were Rehoboth Beach, Pope's Island, and on Christmas Day the Ocean City station. The Pope's Island station on Assateague was just south of the MD-VA line, and not as originally plotted, in Maryland.

By 1878, life-saving stations were mushrooming throughout the country. Congress authorized the construction of three types of stations: the full Life-Saving Station - built along the Atlantic and areas on the Great Lakes, the Lifeboat Station - found near deep water ports on the Great Lakes and the west coast, and Houses of Refuge - along the warmer south Atlantic and Gulf coasts.

Publications of the day were filled with the many heroic rescues performed by life-saving crews. The U.S. Life-Saving Service was finally designated as a separate agency in the Treasury Department in 1878. Sumner Increase Kimball was selected as the General Superintendent and held this office until the end of the Life-Saving Service in 1915, and the formation of the Coast Guard.