JEKYLL Island, Georgia coast

This has by far, been the most difficult Blog to write. But to satisfy the curiosity of my sister, I had to include all of the pictures so that she can thus visit this island of the famous, to know that it really is not much different from many other communities in our great country. The history is really the most interesting part of it. After returning to Georgia from Ohio, we drove through what had been the original gateway to cross the causeway with marshland on both sides, to get to Jekyll Island . It was developed to be a privately owned hunting retreat for 53 charter members who were wealthy and powerful men like Pullitzer, Vanderbilt and Morgan. And later it become a settlement of vacation homes for their families. We began our own auto tour along the heavy wooded roadways dense with Spanish moss. We stopped at the sand dunes to walk the beach and watch the sea gulls and waves . Our stop at the Tour Museum of the Island, where we saw a carriage preparing to provide a ride for a bridal party, was where we made arrangements to take a trolly ride for a narated tour of the original historic district. The Island Museum consists of 33 structures in the historic district. I wanted to give you the pictures of the main structures in this Museum district and the names of important people and events that put this island down in history. A parcel of the island was purchased by John DuBignon who built his cottage in 1884. He had purchased the entire island by 1885 Then with the help of his brother-in-law, Newton Finney, he sold the island to the newly formed Jekyll Island Club for $125,000. In 1896 his cottage was moved and is the oldest intact structure on the island at this time. We stopped to go through the interior of the DuBignon house where the kitchen was in a seperate building to prevent the cooking from heating the main house and in case of fire. If there was a fire in the kitchen, the breezeway could be torn down easily and quickly to prevent the fire from spreading to the main house. Many of the cottages were built without kitchens as the meals were usually taken in the Jekyll Island Club House. The clubhouse was a three and four story building with servant quarters, dining rooms and parlors and 60 guest rooms, built in 1886 in Queen Anne style with a circular tower . When space became a problem as the resort gained in popularity, an annex was added in 1901 containing eight apartments on the first and second floors and the fourth floor for the servants. This was all designed for comfort and not as a showcase of their wealth. The dining room was added in 1917.

In 1886 a noted architect was hired to subdivide the grounds and create 50 lots for future cottages. The lots were arranged so any cottage built would be no further than one fourth mile from the Club House.

One of the first buildings on the tour was the Faith Chapel of the village, built in 1911. The exterior is almost entirely of shingle construction as are many of the original vacation homes. The interior of this chapel is also shingle.

Cottage describes a large or small vacation home built for comfort and were unpretentious, representing only a small part of the owners overall wealth. They were designed in a variety of architectural styles including shingle. Jekyll has the finest collection of shingle style structures in the south.

In 1897 when the clubhouse did not have sufficient space for all of the members, the Sans Souci Apartments were built. It is four stories with six apartments, without kitchens, on the second and third floors and the fourth floor was the servants quarters. The original owners of these apartments were J. P. Morgan, financier; William Rockefeller of the Standard Oil Company; William P Anderson of the American Cotton Oil Company; Joseph Stickney of Stickney, Conynham and Company; and Henry B Hyde of Equitable Life Assurance Company. Thus known as the power house. Henry Hyde was known as the Czar of Jekyll for his demanding approach to running the Club's affairs. He also personally approved the Sans Souci apartment's occupants, rejecting those with children and those with mistresses alike.

Members found that they were unable to truly escape from their responsibilities in the outside world even on Jekyll. The world would come to Jekyll, and the quiet little island soon found it's way into history. Some of the significant events that would shape the world we live in today were started on Jekyll. The first transcontinental telephone call was placed here within the Clubhouse, as was the development of the Federal Reserve Act shortly after the Panic of 1907.

White employees held most of the skilled jobs and enjoyed the island's amusements of golfing, bicycling, and swimming. Nearly all were provided housing in servants quarters inside the cottages or in the clubhouse. They also went to parties and dances on the island. Private cottages were built only for the high-ranking employees like the boat captain or the golf pros.

The Furness Cottage built in 1890 for the Furness family was later purchased by Joseph Pulitzer in 1896 when it was relocated and used to house his staff. In 1930 the Goodyear family bought it, had it moved to it's present location and donated it to the Jekyll Island Club to be used as an infirmary for the island in memory of Josephine Looney Goodyear.

These are pictures of the largest, most expensive, L-shaped Italian style residence on the island built for Richard Teller Crane, Jr. Crane was the owner of a manufacturing business in New York which made plumbing products. Sound familiar Salem people?

The Crane Cottage (?) tour begins with the front and ends with an inner courtyard .

The Goodyear Cottage which now houses an art gallery and gift shop

Cherokee Cottage

The Villa Marianna, built in 1928 by Frank Gould, was the last cottage built for a member and was named for his daughter.

Villa Ospo Cottage, built by the first member to have his own motor car on the island. Thus he had an attached garage.

Indian Mound Cottage built in 1892 for Gordon McKay. It was bought by William Rockefeller in 1904 and is presently under restoration.

Mistletoe Cottage

Moss Cottage shingle style built in 1896 by William Struthers, where we toured the first floor. It has a game room with shingle walls and exposed beams.

After the Club closed in 1947, the Club House served as a state-operated hotel when the island changed from private ownership. It was again restored in 1986.

The Horton house built of tabby, was the first house built on this island before the island became a wealthy man's resort. It is not a part of the club members village.

There are many new villas resorts that have been added to the east coast side of the island in recent years after it became a part of the state of Georgia. There are newer residences on the island also on the main roads and on side streets which all dead end near the dunes on the east coast. This house is for sale and we thought that we might like to settle down in it when we tire of traveling. Don't hold your breath! It is very close to the Atlantic coast and after checking on the internet, we found that it is a six bedroom, three and a half bath home that we could have for just $737,500.

Return to south Georgia

Though we were ready to leave Ohio and the snow behind , we took time the last evening there to have dinner with friends Ray and Linda at Thano's on Rt 224 in Canfield. We had the most enjoyable evening and delicious dinner! We must do this again when back in Ohio in July. But most of all, we miss family and would like for them to be with us!

We stopped on the way south in Jonesville, NC and then again in Lexington, SC. While at Lexington we went back to Grecian Gardens to meet with our new friends Mike, Sandy and Mary for a wonderful visit. John, so sorry work kept you away. You missed a good time.

When we left the next morning to go on to our destination for the month of December, we left with the most beautiful sky and promise of more to come.

We arrived early in the day at Golden Isle RV Park at Brunswick, Ga and prepared to spend the Christmas holiday here. We had brought decorations from Ohio to remind us of back home. , and added new decorations also . Yes, the tree is small, but we did not want to give up anymore space. We are also hoping that we can connect with the computer and camera to watch the celebration there in Ohio for Christmas. Since they are in the single digits at night now, we do not miss being there. Christmas day might be another story!

After arriving at home in the south, I finally got our Christmas letters done and sent them out with cards. You would have thought that I would have had loads of time to do it before, but I guess I am just a procrastinator. All I did in Ohio was shop, wrap, bake, read and visit. The most important being visit! We left the gifts and the baked goods there. It sure beats shipping costs to mail all of it!

Since we have been back in Georgia we have been to the Ritz Theatre to see the locals do "A Christmas Carol". It was very enjoyable and we stopped at Shoney's for sundaes afterward and couldn't beat the $1.99 price! We haven't done that in a long time. We shopped today and bought pies for Christmas day. And since we could not decide on a favorite, we bought all three favorites! And Gary would not pass up the "buy one get one free" offer! We sure will have to take only a piece at a time from the freezer or the weight will go back on for sure. Such a shame to have to worry about such things!

We also spent another day checking out Jekyll Island the island of the millionaires of days gone by. We will go back and take photos of the Historic District another day. We drove about six miles through marsh land to reach the causeway this first day to find out how to navigate the island and to see if there were Christmas lights . The first lights we saw were on the gate house to the island , which was a replica of the school house from the Historic District. Other lights were at the Campground on the island where we saw a trailer from Ohio . But the grounds were so dark and encumbered with trees that we were glad that we did not plan on staying there. . We not only found lights to greet us, but found the deer aplenty. We had to stop for eight of them to cross the road. They sure were not afraid of us. I really should have gotten out of the car to take pictures. I think that they would have stood still for us.

While there we walked on the beach and also walked out on a

fishing pier to watch the sunset .

We could see the lighthouse on St. Simmons Island as well as watching people walking the shores of Jekyll . But the St.Simmons Island tour will be another day or two of fun for it is rich in history also.