LHS opens renovated life-saving station

The doors are now open for tours at the Lewes Historical Society’s newly renovated U.S Life-Saving Station in Canalfront Park.

It is a museum that offers an authentic look at how lives were saved along the coast more than a century ago. The 1880s vintage building is a centerpiece of the LHS maritime campus. 

LHS held a reception April 1 to give a preview of what visitors will experience.

Andrew Lyter, LHS executive director, said the building has never been open five days a week.

“The [building] had been underutilized for years. We’re really striving to highlight another asset of our maritime campus,” Lyter said.

The building was once the home of the United States Life-Saving Service, forerunner of the U.S. Coast Guard.

“These guys were civilians, not in the military. It was seasonal employment, like the beach patrol,” Lyter said. “They were just people who lived up in town and were doing their part taking care of people they saw suffering on our coast.”

Lyter said they used paint fragments from the structure to be able to repaint the building to its original colors.

The building used to be located next to the the Cape May-Lewes Ferry terminal. It was moved to Canalfront Park in 1979.

One of the most prized possessions on display is an original life cart from the 1880s.

“It’s a got big, wide wheels meant to roll over sand dunes,” said Ryan Schwartz, LHS director of interpretation. “This is how lifesavers would have carried their equipment to the site of a shipwreck.” 

LHS just received an artifact on loan from the Ocean City Life-Saving Museum: a mortar from a projectile gun used to shoot a line to shipwrecks to pull men and women ashore.

Lyter said LHS will be adding more artifacts to the life-saving station throughout the summer, including its refurbished surf boat.

The building will be open for tours from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday.