Visitors can view the DuBignon cemetery near the Horton House ruins. All members were to report daily what they had killed and turn it over to the club. Owned in part by J.P. Morgan, this six-unit building is recognized as one of the first condominiums in the United States. For a century, a French family owned it, eventually turning the island into a hunting club. Together these strokes of genius resulted in the use of a lighter ball and steel shafts, forever changing the game. There is far more history than can be explained in this brief overview, but it became the ultimate luxury vacation destination for some of the world’s richest families. The current Jekyll Island Club … Ground was broken on the clubhouse building in mid-August 1886. Jekyll Island Timeline Colonial Era. Navigate through our storied history below, and when you're ready, allow us to chart your own exploration of our historic resort. Visit the Mosaic Museum – The historic tram is a must do on Jekyll Island that included tickets to the Jekyll Island Museum. The final blow was World War II when the government ordered an evacuation of Island due to the threat of enemy submarines off the coast. The Landmark Tour took us through time and followed the rise and fall of the Jekyll Island Club. The Club was originally founded in 1886; several elite families, including the Rockefellers, the Pulitzers, the Morgans, and the Astors, created this group. More information about the Whitaker family and the creation of the Jekyll Island State Park Authority is available in the book Jekyll Island, A State Park. The Island’s seaside course, Great Dunes Golf Course, was designed by Walter J. Travis exclusively for Jekyll Island Club in 1926. William Horton purchased a Great Copper Pot and began brewing beer on Jekyll Island at what would become recognized as the state's first brewery. Jekyll Island was also a participant in the first transcontinental telephone call on January 25, 1915. In the late 1800s, Jekyll Island became an exclusive hunting club for families with names like Rockefeller, Morgan, Vanderbilt, Pulitzer, and Baker. From the moment you arrive, you'll be whisked away into the rich history of Jekyll Island and The Club that bears its name. With the financial situation of the club worsening, the executive committee decided to create a new level of club membership in 1933. D'Wolf, and Charles L. Schlatter. Forbes magazine founder Bertie Charles Forbes wrote several years later: Picture a party of the nation's greatest bankers stealing out of New York on a private railroad car under cover of darkness, stealthily riding hundreds of miles South, embarking on a mysterious launch, sneaking onto an island deserted by all but a few servants, living there a full week under such rigid secrecy that the names of not one of them was once mentioned, lest the servants learn the identity and disclose to the world this strangest, most secret expedition in the history of American finance. It was made a historic landmark in 1978 and restored and reopened as the Radisson Jekyll Island Club Hotel in 1985. Other leisure activities included carriage driving, tennis, and bicycling.[6]. Coined the First-Name Club, together the group drafted the modern day Federal Reserve. Cherokee, named after a wild rose, reflects the Shrady family's life of elegant leisure. The nation's first transcontinental phone call took place between President Woodrow Wilson in Washington, DC, Alexander Graham Bell in New York, Thomas Watson in San Francisco, Henry Higginson in Boston, and AT&T President Theodore Newton Vail at Jekyll Island Club. A New York banker helped with the purchase of the entire island. In 1947, after five years of funding a staff to keep up the lawn and cottages, the island was purchased from the club's remaining members for $675,000 (about 7.4 million in 2017) during condemnation proceedings by the state of Georgia. Senator Nelson Aldrich (R-RI), chairman of the National Monetary Commission, went to Europe for almost two years to study that continent's banking systems. [10], Role in the history of the Federal Reserve, Non-contributing and demolished properties, U.S. National Register of Historic Places, List of National Historic Landmarks in Georgia (U.S. state), National Register of Historic Places listings in Glynn County, Georgia, "WHO WAS CLERMONT LEE AND WHY SHOULD ANYONE CARE? The public must not glean a hint of what was to be done. Committees were formed to get the club off the ground. Villa Marianna was the last of 18 cottages to be completed, in 1928. The Jekyll Island Club never bounced back from the Great Depression, when many of its members resigned, and it closed in 1942. However, by the beginning of March it was announced there would be an early close to the season due to the club's financial situation and the strain the war had on the labor situation. The club was turned into a public resort by the state, but closed by 1971, a financial failure. Golf eventually took over as the Club's dominant sport. 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