What is now the Takanassee Beach Club was originally known as U.S. Life-Saving Station #5. It is a rare survivor from the era of frequent shipwrecks, when sand bars, shallow waters, and winter storms made the waters of New Jersey treacherous to the busy coastwise trade. In 1900 New Jersey contained 42 life saving stations situated three and a half miles apart between Sandy Hook and Cape May. From September to May their crews patrolled the beaches nightly looking for ships at peril. From this root the United States Coast Guard grew, but today only a few of the stations survive. Read an actual life saving account (152Kb .pdf) »
This property still has its three original buildings, and each, only moderately altered, is an architectural gem. The oldest, a handsome stick style building with prominent decorative trusses in each gable, was built in 1878-79 after a model designed for the 1876 Philadelphia centennial exhibition. The second building is shingle style, designed cica 1897 as living quarters for the life-saving crew. The third building from 1903 lies closest to the beach. It is a one-story, shingled boathouse with a tall square lookout tower facing the ocean. All three of the buildings are the only ones in New Jersey. No other location in the United States retains as many original Life-Saving Service buildings.
Deactivated by the Coast Guard in 1928, it subsequently became the Takanassee Beach Club. Today the former U.S. Life-Saving Station #5, is in need of rescue itself. What no northeaster or hurricane accomplished in 135 years, a developer’s bulldozer could soon achieve. The site is under threat of demolition for a proposed townhouse development, although the project is currently on hold pending environmental review. The prospective builder has only offered to move the buildings.
The buildings of Life-Saving Station #5 are irreplaceable survivors of an earlier at the shore. PNJ thinks preserving them at their original sites through some form of adaptive use should be the highest priority, to avoid losing these unique reminders of our maritime heritage.
Assemblyman Sean Kean organized a forum to discuss the future of the Beach Club property. Those interested in the preservation of the property are working with the Assemblyman to try and secure funds from various resources such as the Green Acres to be able to purchase the property.
Some images and text courtesy: http://www.preservationnj.org