Jekyll Island Historic District

The Jekyll Island Club opened its clubhouse in 1888, and membership was capped and fiercely exclusive. It was said that the members represented a large share of the entire nation's wealth, and they treated the island as a private world, hunting, riding, dining, and relaxing through the winter months away from the public eye.

History was made here. In 1910 a small group of financiers met in secret on the island to draft the plan that would become the Federal Reserve System, and in 1915 the first transcontinental telephone call was celebrated from the club, connecting the coasts. The clubhouse and grounds hosted a slice of the American elite at the height of the Gilded Age.

The members did not stay only in the clubhouse. Many built their own winter cottages nearby, grand homes they modestly called cottages, in shingle, Mediterranean, and other fashionable styles. Names like Indian Mound, the Rockefeller cottage, and the Crane cottage still mark them, and several are open to visitors on guided tours.

A jewel of the district is Faith Chapel, a small stone church whose windows include a signed piece by Louis Comfort Tiffany, one of very few Tiffany windows that carries his signature. Set among the oaks, the chapel is a quiet, luminous space that anchors the village's sense of an entire community built for a single season of the year.

The club's golden age faded with the Depression and the shifting fortunes of its members, and the Second World War effectively ended it. With German submarines prowling the Atlantic coast, the island was considered vulnerable, and the club closed for good in the early 1940s, its cottages shuttered and its grand rooms falling silent.

In 1947 the state of Georgia bought the entire island and made it a state-owned park, saving the Historic District from ruin or private redevelopment. Careful restoration over the following decades brought the clubhouse and many cottages back to life, and the district today is both a hotel and a museum village, its buildings preserved rather than replaced.

The Historic District is only part of Jekyll Island. Because the whole island is a protected state park, development is limited and much of it remains wild, wide beaches, salt marsh, and maritime forest laced with bike paths. On the north end, Driftwood Beach is a haunting stretch of bleached, weathered trees where the sea has slowly reclaimed the forest.

The island is also home to a sea turtle center that rehabilitates injured turtles and educates visitors about the loggerheads that nest on Georgia beaches. Between the history, the quiet, and the natural beauty, Jekyll offers a slower, older kind of coastal Georgia than the busier resort islands nearby.

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The Jekyll Island Historic District, on Jekyll Island on the Georgia coast, preserves the historic winter retreat of some of America's wealthiest families during the Gilded Age, when the island was an exclusive private club. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, many of the richest families in the country wintered here at the Jekyll Island Club, building grand cottages amid the moss-draped oaks, and the historic district today preserves the elegant clubhouse, now a hotel, and the beautifully restored cottages and grounds. Toured on foot, by tram, or by trolley, it offers a fascinating glimpse of Gilded Age luxury on the Georgia coast. With its historic cottages and club, the Jekyll Island Historic District offers a fascinating destination in Georgia.

You can tour the historic district on foot, by tram, or by trolley, seeing the grand clubhouse and the beautifully restored Gilded Age cottages, stroll the moss-draped grounds, learn the history of the exclusive club and its wealthy members, and enjoy the elegant coastal setting. The historic clubhouse and cottages, the Gilded Age history, the guided tours, and the beautiful grounds are the draws, offering a rich glimpse of a bygone era of luxury. Its preserved elegance is remarkable. With its cottages and history, the Jekyll Island Historic District offers a rewarding experience in Georgia.

The Jekyll Island Club was an exclusive private retreat where some of the wealthiest and most prominent families in America wintered during the Gilded Age, from the late nineteenth into the early twentieth century. Members built grand cottages and enjoyed the island as a private playground, and the club was the setting for notable moments in history. After the club era ended, the island became a state park, and the historic district preserves the clubhouse and cottages. Understanding this Gilded Age history enriches a visit to the Jekyll Island Historic District in Georgia.

The mild months of spring through fall offer the most pleasant weather for touring the historic district on foot, tram, or trolley and strolling the grounds, with spring blooms and mild fall days especially lovely, while the coastal setting is beautiful year-round given the mild Georgia coast climate. For the most pleasant weather to explore the historic cottages and grounds, aim for spring through fall at the Jekyll Island Historic District in Georgia.

The Jekyll Island Historic District is on Jekyll Island on the Georgia coast, within reach of Driftwood Beach, the Jekyll Island beaches, St. Simons Island with its lighthouse and Fort Frederica, and the Golden Isles region. That makes the Jekyll Island Historic District a fascinating stop to combine with Driftwood Beach and the other attractions of the Golden Isles on a visit to Georgia.