Station Kewaunee, Wisconsin
Coast Guard Station #287
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Location:
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North side of Kewaunee River, entrance to Kewaunee Harbor, 7/16 mile northwest by west of Kewaunee Pierhead Light; site originally occupied 1.08 acres
44° 27.7'N x 87° 30.00'W
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Date of Conveyance:
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20 May 1890
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Station Built:
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1893
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Fate:
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Turned over to the GSA in 1963
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Remarks:
Congress authorized the establishment of the Kewaunee Life-Saving Station on 13 October 1888. A site was selected on 17 July 1889 by Alvert M. Read and a "von Bayer." The conveyance was made on 20 May 1890 by Joseph Duvall for $1.00. The station was constructed for a cost of $6,000.00.
Coast Guard Station Kewaunee, Wisconsin was accepted for operation in 1893. It was "rebuilt" from 1928 through 1930 to repair damage inflicted during a 1928 storm as well as for alterations and upgrades to the original structure and boat ramp. An additional tract of land, lying immediately adjacent and to the north of the site, was acquired by the Government in 1930 for "lighthouse purposes."
The crew received a lookout tower and their first electric refrigerator in 1933. The launch way was completely reconstructed in 1946 for a cost of $29,298.00.
Station Kewaunee was disestablished on 29 August 1947 and became the Electronic Repair Station (Landlines) effective 1 July 1948. That station was closed and then sold to Sturgeon Bay Iron & Metal Company on 23 July 1965 for $6,799.99.
Land for a lighthouse was acquired in 1905. The lighthouse was abandoned by 1945, possibly during the 1930s.
Keepers:
Nelson Craite was appointed keeper on 19 OCT 1893 and left in 1915.
Anton M. Jessen was appointed keeper in 1915.
Sources:
Station History File, CG Historian’s Office
Dennis L. Noble & Michael S. Raynes. “Register of the Stations and Keepers of the U.S. Life-Saving Service.” Unpublished manuscript, compiled circa 1977, CG Historian’s Office collection.
Ralph Shanks, Wick York & Lisa Woo Shanks. The U.S. Life-Saving Service: Heroes, Rescues and Architecture of the Early Coast Guard. Petaluma, CA: Costaño Books, 1996.
U.S. Treasury Department: Coast Guard. Register of the Commissioned and Warrant Officers and Cadets and Ships and Stations of the United States Coast Guard, July 1, 1941. Washington, DC: USGPO, 1941.