{"nrhp_refnum":"85002756","name":"Point Reyes Lifeboat Rescue Station, 1927","other_names":["Point Reyes Lifeboat Station"],"category":"district","location":{"address":"Drake's Bay, Point Reyes National Seashore","address_restricted":false,"city":"Inverness","county":"Marin County","state":"CA","lat":37.99542563850005,"lon":-122.97570810724704,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1985-11-07","is_nhl":true,"nhl_designated_date":"1989-12-20","areas_of_significance":["Commerce","Transportation","Maritime History","Social History"],"significance_levels":["national","state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A rail-launching Coast Guard lifeboat station on Drakes Bay near Point Reyes, Marin County, California, built in 1927 and made up of a boathouse, officer-in-charge's quarters, outbuildings and a launchway.","why_significant":"The station is described as the only unaltered rail-launching station of its type remaining on the Pacific Coast. It keeps its boathouse, launchway, tracks, launching cradles and a 36-foot motor lifeboat. It served the humanitarian lifesaving needs of Pacific coast shipping from 1927 into the 1960s.","narrative":"Built in 1927 on a sandy stretch of Drakes Bay, this Coast Guard lifeboat station replaced an earlier lifesaving station on Ten-Mile Beach and was placed in the lee of Point Reyes, where motor lifeboats could be launched in protected water. The complex centers on a two-and-a-half-story wood boathouse with crew quarters upstairs, a launchway with rails and cradles running into the bay, and a two-story officer-in-charge's residence. Garages, a powerhouse, a pumphouse, redwood water tanks and stone retaining walls remain on the hillside. A 36-foot motor lifeboat, built in 1953, is also associated with the site. The station is considered significant as a typical rail-launching station and the only unaltered example of its type on the Pacific Coast. It served shipping along a coastline where more than 30 vessels were lost. The Coast Guard closed it in 1968, and the National Park Service now owns it.","period_of_significance":"1927-1939","architect_builder":"U.S. Coast Guard","architectural_style":"Coast Guard Standard Plan","criteria":[],"status_note":"Closed by the Coast Guard in 1968 and now owned by the National Park Service; the station was newly restored, but the marine railway was deteriorating as of a 1989 visit.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:31.724307-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_CA/85002756_NHL.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/85002756/3ea1f87a7b-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/85002756/3ea1f87a7b-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Evan1007","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SignLifeboat.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Evan1007</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SignLifeboat.jpg"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"100002147","name":"Point Reyes Peninsula Dairy Ranches Historic District","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/california/point-reyes-peninsula-dairy-ranches-historic-district-100002147/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/123857956","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Point_Reyes_Lifeboat_Station","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7208147"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/california/marin-county/point-reyes-lifeboat-rescue-station-1927-85002756/"}