How many times have you driven down Inlet Drive, past the low white building next to the newer Coast Guard station, and wondered what was actually inside? Before the August 8 open house, the honest answer was nothing you could see. The building had sat closed since 2018, and even after the Borough of Point Pleasant Beach bought the property in 2023 specifically to save it, the doors stayed shut to everyone but a handful of volunteers.
On Saturday, August 8, the building opened to the public for one day. It wasn't a ribbon-cutting on a finished museum. The building was still becoming what it will be, and the paperwork behind the event said so in plain terms.
What Happened Saturday
The Point Pleasant Beach Historic Preservation Commission, working with the new nonprofit Lifeboat Station 105, hosted an inaugural open house from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 24 Inlet Drive. Admission was free, and guided tours took visitors through the station that housed Coast Guard operations at the Manasquan Inlet until a new station opened nearby in 2017 and this one was formally decommissioned the following year. It was the first time the public had been let inside since then, according to Patch's coverage of the event.
There was a second layer to the day for anyone with a personal tie to the old station. Organizers invited residents to bring personal photographs connected to the station's Coast Guard history to be digitally archived and preserved as part of a permanent record. If a relative served here, or you had a shot of the old lifeboat launches tucked in a drawer somewhere, the open house was an opportunity to share it.
A Building That Predates Itself
Coast Guard operations at the Manasquan Inlet go back to the 1840s, long before this particular structure existed. The building was built in 1936 and 1937, a Colonial Revival station that the National Register of Historic Places recognized on May 14, 2021, citing its architectural, transportation, and maritime significance. It's one of five nearly identical Roosevelt-era stations built in New Jersey during the Depression, part of a design template the federal government repeated up and down the coast.
The station kept growing after it opened. A boathouse went up around 1939. Enlisted quarters were added in 1976. Crews worked out of the building for decades until a new station opened just up the inlet in 2017 and this one was decommissioned the following year.
| Year | What happened |
|---|---|
| 1840s | Coast Guard lifesaving operations begin at the Manasquan Inlet |
| 1936-1937 | Current station built on Inlet Drive |
| 1939 | Boathouse added |
| 1976 | Enlisted quarters added |
| 2017 | New Coast Guard station opens nearby |
| 2018 | Old station decommissioned |
| 2021 | Added to the National Register of Historic Places |
| 2023 | Borough of Point Pleasant Beach purchases the property |
| 2026 | First public open house, August 8 |
The station that replaced it now covers a stretch of coast from Long Branch to Seaside Heights and up to 48 miles offshore, including the Shark River Inlet, the Manasquan Inlet itself, and parts of Barnegat Bay. Its crew of 27 responds to more than 600 search and rescue calls a year, which gives you a sense of how much water this stretch of the Jersey Shore actually watches over, even after the historic building's own crew moved on.
The Punch List Tells You Where This Really Stands
Preservation commission minutes from last September laid out what it took just to let people inside for a look, and the list shows this wasn't a finished restoration:
- An active fire alarm
- One operational bathroom
- Two fire extinguishers
- Fire, electrical, and building permits
- Active insurance on the building
That's the full requirement for opening the doors for viewing only. Not a renovated interior. Not updated systems throughout. The minimum a building inspector will sign off on. A report on mold, lead, and asbestos in the building was still pending as of that same meeting, and a donated exterior power washing had been put on hold until the building's insurance was in place.
None of that is a knock on the effort. It was actually the more interesting story than a polished grand opening would have been. Visitors weren't touring a completed museum Saturday. They were seeing a building at the exact stage where a small group of people had done just enough to let the rest of the town see what they were working with.
Who's Actually Doing the Work
The name behind most of the physical progress in those same minutes is John Monticello, who filed the paperwork to establish Lifeboat Station 105 as a nonprofit and has been doing hands-on repair work in the meantime, securing hanging ceiling cables, replacing missing ceiling tiles, and cleaning the floors. As of last fall, the nonprofit was still waiting on the IRS to finalize its 501(c)(3) status, which is a detail that matters if you're weighing whether to donate. Once approved, contributions become tax deductible, and the organization is also recruiting volunteers it calls crew members.
The funding model so far leans on the community rather than a large grant. A new logo was designed for the group, and t-shirts carrying it have been sold at two local traditions, the Seafood Festival and the Tug of War, with proceeds going toward the station's maintenance. It's a small-town way of paying for a big preservation project, one T-shirt and one festival booth at a time.
What the Building Could Become
The nonprofit's stated goal is to preserve the station as a museum for the Point Pleasant Beach Historical Society while also creating a community space residents can actually use. Plans include a small cafe and kitchen for culinary events, and the group is already telling residents the building can accommodate parties of up to 49 people for private events once it's further along. Whether that timeline is months or years likely depends on how quickly the insurance, permitting, and remediation work moves, none of which was finished as of the most recent public minutes available.
How to Support the Station After the Open House
The open house on August 8 was the first public look inside, but it's unlikely to be the last. The organization is actively recruiting volunteers and accepting donations through its own site, and its fundraising is tied to events already on the town's calendar, so there will be other chances to support the effort. Visitors were invited to bring an old photo if they had one. The archive they're building only gets made once.
Clayton & Clayton has spent nearly a century watching buildings like this one outlast trends, our own roots in Bay Head go back to 1930, six years before the first timbers went up on Inlet Drive. If a Saturday spent inside a 90 year old lifesaving station has you thinking more seriously about what it's actually like to live along this stretch of the inlet, that's a conversation we're glad to have. Reach out to Clayton & Clayton to schedule a confidential consultation whenever you're ready.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.
