Crew Quarters and Office Building

The Port Orford Lifeboat Station (Coast Guard Station #318) was commissioned in 1934 to provide lifesaving service to the southern portion of the Oregon coast.  The station served the area until its decommissioning in 1970.  The station at Port Orford was one of the three earliest Coast Guard stations constructed in Oregon (earlier stations had been built by the U.S. Life-Saving Service).  Neither of the other two Coast Guard-built station retains the degree of integrity as found here.  Port Orford’s station complex gracefully combines Cape Cod and classical building forms with Craftsman features, and with its cedar shingles, presents a style typical of the Pacific coast.

Lifeboat stations built during the 1920's through the 1940's represented the highest achievements in Coast Guard architecture.  After World War II, station designs changed, making them more military in character.  Although simple, the Port Orford station compound exemplifies Oregon’s Coast Guard Stations and is the only Chatham-type station remaining on the coast.  Other Chatham-type stations, virtual carbon copies, remain on the East Coast and Great Lakes.  Those stations are finished in white clapboard, while the Port Orford station is finished in cedar shingles. 

The two-story crew quarters and office building, the officer-in-charge residence, garage, storage building and pump house are still standing.  Together with curbed driveways, areas of lawn and privet hedge surrounding the structures and the elevated paths and walkways, the ensemble conveys a particular sense of place and time.

Officer in charge quarters

The officer-in-charge residence is sometimes referred to as the "keeper's cottage" as they were known in the U.S. Life-Saving Service.  The USLSS merged with the Revenue Cutter Service in 1915 to form the U.S. Coast Guard. The Port Orford station's officer-in-charge residence is virtually identical to the officer-in-charge residence at the Point Reyes Lifeboat Station in California.  As with the crew quarters, the exterior of the Port Orford residence is cedar shingles, while the Point Reyes house is traditional clapboard, giving the Port Orford station a unique Pacific Northwest appearance.

The headlands at Port Orford jut out into the Pacific Ocean.  The rocks in the area were hazardous to navigation and caused shippers to demand the building of a lifesaving/lifeboat station as far back as the late 1800's. (Click on image to enlarge) Five buildings remain on the 101.29 acre site, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places (#98000606).

(Click on image for more information) The boathouse, which burned down in the late 1970s, was located in Nellies Cove, 280 feet below the main station on the Heads.  Access to the boathouse was provided by a steep 532-step wood and concrete staircase.  To fuel the lifeboats, crewmen carried five-gallon cans down to the cove, one can in each hand, until the tanks were full.  Remnants of the boathouse can be seen from the cove trail.

Early USCG Surfman Badge

"You have to go out,  but you don't have to come back...."                                                          Surfman's motto

World War II During the war, the Coast Guard was placed under the operational command of the U.S. Navy.  The number of men assigned to the station increased to well over one hundred as the mission included coastal defense as well as lifesaving.  Coast Guardsmen were sleeping in the attic and, with too many for the barracks, Neptune's Lodge (now the Castaway Motel) or the old Port Authority building were leased to house the overflow. Wartime defenses were dramatic.  There was a guardhouse, sentries, guard dogs, barbed wire, machine gun pits and foxholes.  Below the foxholes stood a twenty-millimeter cannon, and there were gun lockers and cases of grenades in the armory.		Observation tower c. 1943
Marking on walkway c. 1942	Historically, sailors and local fishermen triangulated their position at sea using the lifeboat station's watchtower and Cape Blanco lighthouse.  Thus, the Coast Guard’s pure white tower could not be camouflaged.  The walkway to the tower through the woods, however, was dark.  To assist the Coasties trying to find their way in low-light conditions, white arrows were painted on the concrete.  The arrows are faintly visible to this day.

The introduction of the helicopter and the development of faster lifeboats decreased the need for a series of lifeboat stations along the coast.  The Lifeboat station in Port Orford was decommissioned in 1970.