The Boat House is located approximately 400 feet southeast of the 1867 Lighthouse. The structure was built in 1897. It is a single-room, wood-frame structure measuring 36 feet by 16 feet. The Boat House sits on a concrete floor slab and is topped with a gable roof with red asphalt shingles. It has one fixed four-light window sash on each of the north and south sides. It has substantial double doors facing the water and a small access door on the side opposite. The building is painted white.

The interior is unfinished, with framing visible. The concrete floor includes steel rails used as a marine railway to launch the station boat. A short section of rail extends from the building, though it no longer extends to the water’s edge as it would have originally.

Although the Boat House has had multiple repairs due to damage from high water, the restored features replicate the original appearance, retaining the integrity of the structure and its historic and architectural significance.

Early offshore lighthouses had boats that could be rowed or sailed and pulled ashore when not in use. As heavier engine-powered boats became the norm, a boathouse with rails to haul the boat in became more important. Lighthouses used boats both for their own transportation and for rescues. While a separate service, the U.S. Lifesaving Service, was technically responsible for rescues, lightkeepers at South Fox and elsewhere performed an impressive number of rescues.

The boathouse “rescue” was our first start-to-finish restoration project starting in 2006. Over 40 people have had a hand in the various restoration tasks. We thought we were “finished” in 2016. But maintaining buildings on a remote island is a tenuous thing. High water once again threatens the building.