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Located north of Bathtub Beach on Hutchinson Island east of Stuart. Prior to 1915, the United States Life-Saving Service operated a series of refuge houses on Florida's East coast to rescue survivors from the coast's numerous shipwrecks. The Gilbert's Bar House of Refuge was opened in 1876 on a piece of land called Gilbert's Bar two miles north of St. Lucie Inlet and operated by the US Life-Saving Service from 1876-1915. From 1915-1941, the U.S. Coast Guard operated the station, while the U.S. Navy operated it from 1941 through 1945 when it closed. In 1952, the property was transferred to the Dept. of Interior and by 1955 was the last standing house of refuge. It then became a public museum. On May 3, 1974 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The attached caption reads: With Florida's sunny skies and the aquamarine waters of the Atlantic Ocean as background, an artist captures on canvas the weathered Gilbert's Bar House of Refuge on Hutchinson near Jensen Beach. The house was the second of ten such structures built in the 19th century along Florida's eats coast from St. Augustine to Biscayne Bay to give food and shelter to unfortunate victims of shipwrecks. Used during World War II as a lookout station for enemy submarines, the House of Refuge was decommissioned by the United States Coast Guard in 1945 and is today a nautical museum of seafaring history and a preserve for the endangered giant sea turtle. Unspoiled Hutchinson Island offers visitors as bit of the past set amid the beauty of today.

Gaines was a photographer for the Florida Dept. of Commerce's Florida News Bureau.

Also called Stuart House of Refuge.