Other leisure activities included carriage driving, tennis, and bicycling. A portion of this historic golf course is still intact, and can be played. Later, in the 1920s, an ocean side course was built. The first course was located just to the north of the Club compound. Golf eventually took over as the Club's dominant sport. A taxidermist shop was located within the club compound, specifically for mounting the prize game.Īs the club grew, other recreations became popular. Wild game was a common sight on the menu of the clubhouse. A gamekeeper was hired to keep the island well-stocked with pheasants, turkeys, quail and deer.Īll members were to report daily what they had killed and turn it over to the club. When the club started out, hunting was a major recreational activity. It enjoyed great popularity among the elite classes, maintaining a highly exclusive character for 60 years. The Jekyll Island Club was a unique resort, more family-oriented than the Union Club or the Chicago Club. Watson and President Woodrow Wilson in 1915 and the development of the Aldrich–Vreeland Act for the National Monetary Commission in 1908. Vail, president of AT&T, to Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas A. Several nationally important events took place on Jekyll Island during the Club era, including the first transcontinental telephone call made by Theodore N. The club officially opened its doors when the executive committee arrived for the 1888 season on January 21. After some setbacks the clubhouse was completed on November 1. Ground was broken on the clubhouse building in mid-August 1886. Alexander of Chicago was chosen to design the clubhouse, and Horace William Shaler Cleveland, a famous landscape architect, was chosen to design and lay out the grounds. Henry Howland then took up the position as president of the Club.Ĭommittees were formed to get the club off the ground. Lloyd Aspinwall served just 5 months as the club president before he died suddenly. These men faced the difficult task of turning the undeveloped property into a social club for the wealthy upper class of America. The first president was Lloyd Aspinwall, vice president was Judge Henry Elias Howland, treasurer was Franklin M. On April 1, 1886, a meeting was held in New York to create the constitution and by-laws, and to nominate officers for the club. On February 17, 1886, Finney signed an official agreement with Dubignon, who sold Jekyll Island to Finney's Jekyll Island Club for $125,000. In all, Finney was able to find 53 people to join the Club, including such famous names as Henry Hyde, Marshall Field, John Pierpont Morgan, Joseph Pulitzer, and William K. Six of the first seven shares went to the men who signed the charter petition: Finney, Dubignon, King, Richard L. įinney had no difficulty selling the shares. Today, Jekyll Island Club Hotel is a member of Historic Hotels of America, the official program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. It was restored and reopened as a luxury resort hotel in 1985. The complex was designated a historic landmark in 1978. The state tried operating the club as a resort, but this was not financially successful, and the entire complex was closed by 1971. 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. The club closed at the end of the 1942 season due to complications from World War II. The club thrived through the early 20th century its members came from many of the world's wealthiest families, most notably the Morgans, Rockefellers, and Vanderbilts. The original design of the Jekyll Island Clubhouse, with its signature turret, was completed in January 1888. It was founded in 1886 when members of an incorporated hunting and recreational club purchased the island for $125,000 (about $3.1 million in 2017) from John Eugene du Bignon. The Jekyll Island Club was a private club on Jekyll Island, on Georgia's Atlantic coast.
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