A Trip to Jekyll Island - 1st Full Day...

We woke up on Tuesday, October 6th, to rain. Good time to sit on that closed in balcony and enjoy the rain while we plot possibilities for this day.

Here is a map of the island. I had to scan it in two pieces. Hopefully it will give you a feel for the island.  

The day promised to be rainy most of the time. We decided we should check on tickets to the Georgia Sea Turtle Center. I was able to purchase tickets for this online. We drove over there only to realize if we had driven out of the back of our parking lot it was the parking lot for the Sea Turtle Center. We were on a learning curve. 

With Covid-19 regulations in effect, there was a limit to the number of people in the museum at one time. They were counting people entering and exiting to keep in line with the rules. We would have a 30 minute wait till we could enter. I gave her my cell phone number and we went to wait. First we walked under some of those amazing live Oak trees with lots of moss hanging from them. The live Oak is the state tree of Georgia. I loved the moss hanging from the trees. Growing up in Louisiana this was a sight with which I was very familiar. Maybe it took me home. It just was lovely to be in the midst of this natural beauty.

The half hour went quickly and we were soon taking our turn in the Georgia Sea Turtle Center. This center rescues, rehabilitates and then sends back to their natural habitat sea turtles and other reptiles. The building was originally built as the electric generator building for the island. After going through the gift shop you enter the display part of the museum with a big window into the surgery room where you may stand and watch them work on turtles. There are two big tv monitors overhead so we didn't have to stand really close to each other.

We then walked outside to a pin that had box turtles in it. Lots of tiny little box turtles. Years ago I found a little box turtle on the side of the road while we lived in Denver, Colorado. I stopped and put it on the floor board in the back seat area of my car and took it home. When the kids came home, they now had a turtle to play with. They loved this creature. Named him Toby. Changed the sign on the fence from Beware of Dogs to Beware of Turtle. They taped two boxes together with an opening between them. One they filled with grass. The other they filled with sand with a tin pie plate with water embedded in the sand. Toby was so fun for them. Jacob would get up every morning and wash Toby in the bathroom sink by running water over his shell. Then he would kiss him before leaving for kindergarten. One morning I heard a scream from the bathroom and went running to be sure all was okay. I found Jake with the turtle hanging from his lip. I could only pull Toby off leaving a little triangle shape on his lip. That was the day Jake was to have his first school picture taken. We have permanent pictoral evidence of Toby. Jake and I talked about it and realized it was time for Toby to be outside again to hibernate for the winter. After school, Jake took him to the field at the end of our street where there was a nice ditch. Toby was set free after providing a lot of fun for three kids. I have a soft spot in my heart for these little creatures.

From this little outside space you enter another building. This building has big tanks in it. The tanks are filled with water that is clean and turtles are left to heal and rehabilitate in them until they are ready to be put back in the wild. Each tank has one turtle. Each window has a sign telling you the type of turtle, the type of injury they had, and the treatment they were being given. Each turtle is given a name and that is on their tank and the sign explaining what is happening with that turtle. Very easy to walk through and educate yourself. The last turtle in a tank was really big. He would swim over and just peek his nose out of the edge of the tank and look at us a bit, then swim away. Really cute. I really felt like it thought we were the ones in a class cube to be watched. The tables were turned!!

At the end of this place was a tank with baby Diamondback Terrapins. These were rescued from eggs and are hatchlings. They will grow and be placed back in the wild. Monumental efforts to keep these creatures alive and well. 

It was fun to visit the turtles first outing of the day. Now, on to the Mosaic. Still a little rainy so another indoor activity seemed like a great idea. The Mosaic is actually a museum with artifacts about the history of Jekyll Island. It was originally the stables for the island. You see, during the Club Years there were no cars on the island. Except for one family. Everyone used horses or bicycles. You received a stall or several stalls in the stable depending on what you paid toward the club. We purchased our tickets and then strolled the museum with no one else in the museum. Very nice.

The first thing that you see as you enter is a Studebaker. The doors are off and you are welcome to sit in it. Claude did and really enjoyed that experience. When you sit in it the radio comes on and the panel lights up a bit. Cool.

Another feature we enjoyed was a monitor with period clothing. Claude stood in front and I found a couple of outfits and they superimposed over Claude. Yep, my guy could have lived in the Club Years in fine fashion!

There was a display about a moment in history that I did not realize Jekyll Island was a part of...the first transcontinental telephone call. Theodore Vail was president of AT&T and a member of the Jekyll Island Club. He arranged for the call to include the Jekyll Island Club. Also participating in this call was President Woodrow Wilson in Washington, DC, Dr. Alex Graham Bell in New York, and Thomas Watson in San Francisco. 

There was a display about Sans Souci. This was the building Claude stayed in on his first visit to the island. San Souci is a french term and means "no worries" or "without care". I guess this makes this the precurser to hakuna matata! It was built because some people wanted a more private place to stay. Some built the cottages for their families. Another solution was San Souci. It has six private suites with 12 servants rooms in the attic. These well-to-do people usually brought their own servants with them. Children were not allowed in San Souci. 

The second family of land owners of Jekyll Island were the Dubignon. In 1886, John Eugene Dubignon with Newton Finney sold the island as a hunting retreat and the Jekyll Island Club was born. 

Everyone joined for dinner at the Grand Dining Room in the Clubhouse. The ladies would have worn a different evening dress each night they were there. That could have been 90 dresses during their winter stay. They did not repeat the dress they wore. The dining room had china made with the crest for Jekyll Island Club. This is the last crest for that and some of the clothing worn by the ladies.

Two more pictures from the museum. The first is the picture is a cotton gin. The Dubignon family raised a high grade of cotton on the island. Hence, the cotton gin. The second picture is a diagram of the clubhouse at Jekyll Island. 

We purchased tickets for a trolley tour of the historic district on Jekyll Island. This portion of the island is where the Jekyll Island Clubhouse is located, the wharf where everyone entered the island and the cottages built by the families who wanted their own private space to live in through the winter. The tour left from the back of the Mosiac. 

The first cottage we passed was the Dubignon Cottage. This was the second owners of Jekyll Island. This family raised a high grade of cotton on the island. 

We drove past San Souci. 

The first picture is the Morgan Club. It was originally an indoor tennis club. It now serves as a conference center and banquet hall. The second picture is really posts in a yard. The posts mark the corners of a cottage that was destroyed. There is a lot of respect for history and what was once on the island during its history. This allows marking of where the building was so it can be remembered still.

Now our tour took us past the first cottages we saw from our drive in to this area the day before. The first three pictures are Moss Cottage. Claude and I really liked the exterior of this cottage best. It just fit the island atmosphere best for us. The last picture is the Goodyear Cottage.

The next two cottages the trolley would stop and allows us to tour the inside. The first resident of Mistletoe Cottage (15 rooms; 5 baths) was John Claflin, trustee of many financial and charitable corporations and Brooklyn merchant. Henry Kirk Porter, a manufacturer and United States Senator, built this cottage in 1900. It was designed by Charles Alling Gifford as a Dutch Colonial Revival. John Chaffin leased the home from Porter's estate in 1924 and two years later bought it and at his death was the last living character member of the Club.

The second cottage we toured was Indian Mound Cottage. The house took its name from a mound in the front yard. The mound was once thought to be an Indian burial ground for the Guale Indians, who were the earliest inhabitants of the island. The mound was later found to be a shell midden left by the Indians. Indian Mound Cottage stands three stories high, and has a total of 25 rooms. There are nine bedrooms, nine bathrooms, and seven servant rooms. The house has many distinguishing features such as an elevator, a cedar-lined walk-in safe, and taps for hot and cold salt water on the bathtub in the master bedroom bath. The house was built by Gordon McKay in 1892. McKay died in 1903 and the house was bought by William Rockefeller in 1905, who used it as a winter home. The portraits are of Almira Goodsell and William Avery Rockefeller.

The view out the front door of Indian Mound Cottage was across the green to Jekyll Island Clubhouse.

As we walked between these two houses, I was once again taken with the beauty of moss covered trees and resurrection ferns. These ferns grow on the trees. They can die out when without water and look dead. But after long, very long, periods of time, when they finally get water, they come right back to life. I love magnolias and even found a magnolia pod with moss hanging from it. 

The remainder of the tour we drove past the historic buildings and the guide driving the trolley told us the history of each building. The Crane Cottage, Hollybourne Cottage, Villa Ospo Cottage with its amazing front door, Gould Casino built in 1902 included a conservatory, a playhouse with bowling alleys and an indoor shooting gallery, Villa Marianna Cottage, Cherokee Cottage, Faith Chapel, a building that housed the married servants and a building that housed the single servants.

One of the things our guide kept saying was the people in the Jekyll Island Club years were intent on living a simple life. Claude and I would look at the 'cottages' and didn't find that life simple. They were very strict about what types of buildings could be built. They lived a fine life but to them it was more simple. They lived here during the winter. For them, they were away from the bustle of the big cities from which they came. And this was probably a simple life. I guess it is just a matter of perspective. The lay of the land and the vegetation lend itself to a very peaceful feeling. Maybe that is the 'simple' they wanted and received from being on Jekyll Island.

Time for dinner. We decided to try Tortuga Jack's. It is actually a tiki bar on the Atlantic side of the island with a restaurant inside. We arrived and they had lots of tables as it was before the real dinner hour. We thought we would sit under the tiki bar and enjoy the ocean air. Alas, after we ordered, the wind was so bad I asked if we could move to an inside table. This we did and enjoyed a nice meal.

After dinner we walked down to the ocean for a little stroll along the Atlantic Ocean. 

Time for some rest. We drove back to our room through those lovely Spanish moss draped trees.

Every evening there is a carriage shaped like a pumpkin that takes people on drives through the historic district. We happened upon it as we were returning to our room.

We returned to our balcony and enjoyed a quiet evening. It was a good day despite the weather threat all day.