The Fascinating Jekyll Island Club Resort History
The Jekyll Island Club and Annex at sunset
Dive into the Jekyll Island Club Resort history, and immerse yourself in the excess of America’s Golden Age.
This gorgeous historic hotel in Georgia is the reason why Jekyll Island is such a tourist destination today.
Come explore the stories behind the people who made this place possible!
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Updated 7/2022 | Written 9/2014
Jekyll Island Club Resort History Tour
The Grand Dining Room inside the Jekyll Island Club Resort
I’ve had the privilege of taking the Jekyll Island history tour several times, and I highly recommend them if you’re wondering what to do in Jekyll Island.
We’ve taken a walking tour hosted by the hotel, gone on the historic district tram ride, and visited the Jekyll Island Museum.
If there’s a scrap of history about the island, I’ve probably read about it!
If you love history as much as you do, you’ll love this unique Georgia property.
Before It Began
Live oak trees near the Jekyll Island Club
Once upon a time, Jekyll Island was a quiet place.
It was only accessible by boat from mainland Georgia, and most people in nearby Brunswick never even thought about the handful of families who lived here.
Then, in the early 1880s, land scouts began to charter boats to the little island to see what the fishing and hunting would be like there.
Everything was found to their liking, and the property was bought up.
With that, this little island would never be the same.
The Golden Age
The courtyard at the Jekyll Island Club
The Jekyll Island Club was originally founded in 1886 by several elite families of the day, including the Rockefellers, the Pulitzers, the Morgans, and the Astors.
Their goal was to establish a rustic hunting club where their entire families were welcome.
This approach was to be more well-rounded than the typical hunting club of the day, where only the men were allowed in.
The families loved the mild winters of the Georgia coast, and the hunters among them were excited about the island’s deer and bird hunting opportunities.
The relatively warmer winters in Jekyll Island were a wonderful retreat when compared with the snowstorms of New York, where their main homes were located.
The main building—the one with the portico and turret—was build in the late 1880s to house those original families.
The original Jekyll Island Club building
The Resort Grows
San Souci, the green building to the front right of the hotel, was added in 1896.
These apartments provided much needed space for friends of the original members who were desperate to join the festivities.
Then, the Club built the Annex in 1902 due to the continuing demand.
By the early 1900s, the Club was in full swing and was absolutely the place to be during the winter season.
From January to March, there were picnics, hunting parties, five-hour-long suppers in the Grand Dining Hall, and racing on the beach.
The Club was a hopping place during the early 1900s, and its members truly helped to shape the culture of the early 1900s.
It was the place from which the first trans-Atlantic phone transmission originated from, and it also hosted the "First Names Club," a group that laid out the plans for the Federal Reserve.
The Decline of the Jekyll Island Club
Those idyllic days for the country’s elite couldn’t last forever.
PIN ME!
In October 1929, the stock market crashed, throwing America’s economy into a tailspin.
The crash hit many of the Club's members hard, and membership numbers dwindled over the next decade as the country entered the Great Depression.
Despite the reduced number of members, the Club tried to soldier on, but the entrance of the U.S. into World War II was too much for the group to handle.
The Club's last season was in 1942 as the world fought and the culture of America changed irrevocably.
After that time, the state of Georgia took over the property and attempted to keep it running.
As you could imagine, a gigantic historical property like the Jekyll Island Club consumed a massive amount of resources.
A New Beginning
In the mid-1970s, the property had fallen into complete disrepair.
The front lawn of the Jekyll Island Club from the Annex
One of the hotel’s concierges told me that she could remember exploring the dilapidated Club around 1975 with her grandfather and watching local kids ride their bikes down the ruined Hall of Mirrors.
The locals hoped that there might be a second life ahead for this special property.
In the mid-1980s, a group of investors, including an architect fresh out of school and an environmental lawyer, approach the state of Georgia with their hopes and dreams of restoring the property.
By 1987, this entrepreneurial group had restored the hotel to its former glory and opened it for business once again.
Because of them, the Jekyll Island Club Resort now has an amazing piece of its history up and running again.
The purchase of the property cost $22 million dollars...and that was before they started buying furniture and all of that.
Clearly, they really, really, really believed in their project.
The Jekyll Island Club Resort Today
The property has come a long way from an abandoned shell of itself.
It has been named one of Travel and Leisure's top 500 hotels in the world and was in the top 20 Hotels in the South (per Conde Nast).
It's absolutely still a work in progress, as most historic properties are.
The historic hotel needs continual restoration to keep it up and beautiful.
Thankfully, the hard, ongoing work is preserving this property for future generations.
On my tricycle rental at our most recent visit
My husband at our dinner at 80 Ocean at the Jekyll Ocean Club
In 2017, the property expanded again, this time at the Ocean.
Today, guests can choose to stay at the historic Jekyll Island Club near the river or in the Ocean Club on the Atlantic Ocean.
We’ve had the pleasure of staying at both properties, and I’m happy to recommend both.
Each has a different feel, depending on what you want from your vacation.
The Jekyll Ocean Club is modern and chic, and we loved the food at 80 Ocean, where we had our anniversary dinner last year.
If you're thinking about visiting the Jekyll Island Club Resort, go ahead and plan that trip!
Not only will you get to stay in one of the coolest hotels around, you'll also be supporting the ongoing preservation efforts and adding your own story to the Jekyll Island Club Resort history.
