Jekyll Island The Jekyll Island Club was the idyllic private kingdom of many of the nation's elite from 1886 until 1942. Founded by a group of millionaires who bought the entire island, the Jekyll Island Club was a closed social unit with a strictly limited membership. During the height of its operation, Jekyll Island played host to many of the nation's most influential financiers, industrialists, and politicians. Members that included the Rockefeller, Crane, Gould and Vanderbilit families built grand "cottages" on the west end of the island around a massive clubhouse (pictured below). During the winter months members cherished Jekyll's beauty and peace as the perfect retreat from the pressures of their busy business and social schedules. In 1942 the U.S. government ordered the area evacuated. The state of Georgia purchased the island from the club in 1947 and turned it into a state park. Most of the cottages have been preserved and are open to the public. Among them are San Souci, owned in part by J.P, Morgan and one of the first condominiums in the U.S.; Indian Mound, the twenty-five room home of the Rockefeller family; the Goodyear Cottage completed in 1906 from designs by the firm of Carrére and Hastings; Crane Cottage, circa 1917, the largest and most lavish of the cottages; the original Club House, a wood and brick Victorian structure with towers and manicured lawns; and Faith Chapel (pictured above), built in 1904 in the Gothic style with copies of the Notre Dame de Paris gargoyles. The chapel also has a large signed Tiffany stained glass window. LINK
I saw a book on this at the library,I thought it was kinda interesting. I wonder what Jekyll Island would be like today if those millionaires had been able to keep the Island? I wonder if it would have become a well known retreat for celebs.
LINK Here's that book I mentioned if you want to learn more about this. I plan on checking it out at the library soon.
