House of Refuge

This museum located on Hutchinson Island is inside of one ten original refuge houses meant to provide aid to those who found themselves stranded along the long Atlantic Florida coast. Built in 1876, this structure is the only one that remains from the original ten. The house itself has been renovated over the years and after the rest of the houses were rendered obsolete it served as a coast guard station, a lookout point during WWII, then a turtle sanctuary and today it's a museum that highlights the region as well as the arduous lives of the 'keepers' on Gilbert's Bar.