USCG Station Belle Isle

The facilities of Station Belle Isle, formerly known as St. Clair Lifeboat Station, were designed by the Ninth Coast Guard, Civil Engineering Section, Cleveland, Ohio. The contractors who built the station were: Sheet Piling & Launchway Company; The Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Company; Foundation Piledriving; The Candler Dock & Dredge Company; and Building Construction, the Faulkner Construction Company.

The property (1 1/4 acres) was purchased April 6, 1881 from the City of Detroit for the sum of $1.00. Belle Isle Lighthouse was constructed and a light was first shown on May 15, 1882. The light keeper's dwellings were built the succeeding year along with a surrounding retaining wall and a boathouse. That lighthouse occupied the site continuously until construction of the present facilities.

The first station was completed in 1942, and at that time the station was the most modern on the Great Lakes. The mooring basin, launch ways, and boat handling facilities were the finest obtainable. The watch tower was unparalled; surveillance of the Detroit River and Lake St. Clair being handled by a twenty-four hour watch in the seventy-five foot tower with the most scientific design and instrumentation available.

It was refurbished in ???