The Gilded History of Georgia’s Jekyll Island

Trips with James

4 years ago

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Jekyll Island just before Christmas Day 2020

After spending the late fall in Atlanta, GA during 2020, when the cold wet winter arrived I escaped further South to Jekyll Island just before Christmas. The weather was in the low 60s and the island had decked itself out with its annual Christmas light show. The light show is a self-guided driving tour that takes you through several parts of the island and ends at the historical district with amazing lighting displays in front of the houses and through the 100-year-old Oak trees that are spread throughout the historical district. Then after the tour, I went inside the Jekyll Island Club Hotel, and had an expertly made Old Fashion at the bar while maintaining social distance. It was a warm and lovely way to kick off the Christmas season even during such a horrible year as 2020!

Christmas Light display in the Historical District.

Jekyll Island which is part of the Gold Coast of Georgia has a rich history that stretches back to at least the 1400s where it was first a Native American settlement as part of the Creek Nation. Starting around 1510, white man arrived and over the next couple of centuries it was colonized first by the French, then the Spanish and finally the English until it became part of the United States. But in the late 1800s, Jekyll island was taken over by an entirely new type of invader, the American Captains of Industry!

After the American Civil War, the original owners of the island returned and set up shop once again. Previous to the war Jekyll island had been a plantation whose work force was based on African American slaves. The island was owned by the Du Bignon family, who were refugees from France that had escaped the French Revolution. Upon their return to the island, the father, Henri Charles Du Bignon divided the island among his four children.

The 100 year old Oak trees between houses in the Historical District.

JEKYLL ISLAND CLUB

In 1875 John Du Bignon started to buy out the rest of his family and set about trying to market the island as a winter retreat for the super wealthy of the Northeast on par with summer retreats such as Bar Harbor, Maine and Newport, Rhode Island. The plan came to fruition on February 17, 1886. He and 53 wealthy investors formed a private club called the Jekyll Island Club, and a limit of 100 members was imposed to preserve the club’s exclusivity.

The first building of the new club to be built was the large Jekyll Island Club Hotel, a two-winged structure that served as the centerpiece of the club. The “club” began to sell off plots in the area surrounding the Hotel and soon some of the wealthiest families in America had built large mansions called “cottages” which became known locally as “Millionaires Row”.

Moss Cottage, Home of the Macy Family. The shingles are made from local Cypress trees on the island.

Some of the millionaire owners were the Rockefellers, the Vanderbilts, the Goodyear family, the Macy (the department store) family, Andrew Carnegie, J.P. Morgan, and Joseph Pulitzer. They would arrive by private railroad car or private yacht bringing with them servants, horses, buggies, and other toys to amuse themselves during the winter months. It is rumored that every time Carnegie’s yacht arrived that he demanded that a cannon be fired off in salute to him.

The back of Indian Mound Cottage, home of the Rockefellers. Named for a mound in front of the house thought to be an Native American burial site. It was really a large mound of oyster shells buried.

The largest and most expensive winter home built on Jekyll was Crane Cottage. Richard Teller Crane, Jr – think Crane plumbing fixtures. 20 Bedrooms and 17 Bathrooms! It caused quite an uproar, as Club members valued the “simplicity” of their cottages. To try and be good neighbors, it’s said the Cranes had marble flooring removed and replaced with wood.

View of the Crane Cottage from the gardens.

The “club” also played a role in the formation of the Federal Reserve system of banks that we have today. According to history, a duck hunt on the island lead to the creation of our national banking system. In November 1910, Senator Nelson Aldrich and Asst. Secretary of the Treasury met with five of the country’s leading financiers in the Club Room of the Hotel and devised a plan to create a national banking system that became the Federal Reserve which is the agency that sets national banking and monetary policy for the US.

Jekyll Island Club Hotel, centerpiece of the Historical District. Hotel is still operational 12 months a year.

Jekyll Island was also part of the first transcontinental phone call which took place in 1915. The call took place between President Woodrow Wilson in Washington, D.C., Alexander Graham Bell in NY, Thomas Watson in San Francisco and Theodore Vail, president of AT&T who was on Jekyll Island. Remember when long distance was expensive? It was REAL expensive when it first became available – a call between New York and San Francisco? $20.70 for the first 3 minutes.

The Sans Souci, the first “condo” building on the island. Six luxury apartments for single Millionaires *right next to the Hotel.* No children or mistresses allowed. There large balconies on both front and back of the apartments.

From 1888 to 1942 the club opened every January for the winter season, yet even the wealthy suffered during the Great Depression, and the club had financial difficulties. When the United States entered World War II, it ordered the island evacuated for security purposes, ending the era of the Jekyll Island Club. After the war in 1947, the State of Georgia bought the island.

Map of the Historical District including the businesses that serve the tourists.

In the midsection of the intercoastal side of the island is a designated 240-acre (0.97 km2) Historic District. This includes most of the buildings erected during the Jekyll Island Club period, which have been carefully preserved. The district revolves around the Jekyll Island Club Hotel. Thirty-three buildings from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries surround the hotel and many of them are the elaborate mansion-sized “cottages” built by the rich. Some cottages offer rooms for rent for temporary stays. Others have been adapted for use as museums, art galleries, or bookstores. The hotel is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The historic district itself has been listed as a National Historic Landmark District since 1978.

Tram tours originate from the Jekyll Island Museum located on Stable Road directly across from the historic district. They run several times daily and guides describe much of the history of this area.

The view of the shoreline from the Jekyll Island Wharf.

THE NEXT TO LAST SLAVE SHIP

Sadly, Jekyll Island also played a part in the end of Slavery in the United States. America ended legal slave trade in 1808, but the practice was continued illegally until the beginning of the Civil War. The last ship to bring slaves from Africa to the US was the Clotilda out of Mobile, Alabama in July 1860. Yet, the next to last ship was the Wanderer, a pleasure boat that was converted by Southern slave traders in Africa and brought the last large load of slaves from Congo to Georgia in 1858. Of the 500 Africans bought for the voyage, 409 survived and arrived off the southern tip of Jekyll. The crew smuggled the captured Africans ashore and then on to the mainland. News of the slave ship set off a wave of outrage. The federal government’s effort to prosecute the conspirators was unsuccessful. For several years, it was thought that the Wanderer was the last documented slave ship to arrive in the USA before proof of the Clotilda was found.

View from the front of the Crane Cottage (Mansion). The waterway in front is part of the Inter-Coastal Waterway.

Jekyll Island Tourist Information

The island also serves as host to Georgia Sea Turtle Center which is a functioning hospital and rehabitation center for sick and injured Sea Turtles and is the only center of its kind in Georgia. It is open to the public. For more information about times and events, call 912-635-4444, or go to https://www.explorejekyllisland.com/Sea_Turtle_Center.shtml .

Jekyll Island Historic Tours & Gift Shop offers a variety of tours for the whole family. Take a guided tour and step back in time as each historic building’s story unfolds, and the Jekyll Island Club and the National Landmark Historic District come alive. For more information, please call 912.635.4036. Or visit https://www.jekyllisland.com/history-category/tours/.