The Jekyll Island Cottage Colony - by June Hall McCash (Hardcover)

About the Book

The companion volume to "The Jekyll Island Club: Southern Haven for America's Millionaires" focuses on the social club's members and the "cottages" they built near the clubhouse between 1888 and 1928. 250 photos & illustrations.

Book Synopsis

During the Gilded Age, Jekyll Island, Georgia, was one of the most exclusive resort destinations in the United States. Owned by the most elite and inaccessible social club in America, a group whose members included Rockefellers, Pulitzers, Vanderbilts, Goulds, and Morgans, this quiet refuge in the Golden Isles was the perfect winter getaway for the wealthy new industrial class of the snowbound North.

In this delightful book, a companion volume to The Jekyll Island Club: Southern Haven for America's Millionaires, June Hall McCash focuses on the social club's members and the "cottages" they built near the clubhouse between 1888 and 1928. Illustrated with hundreds of never-before-published photographs from private family collections, The Jekyll Island Cottage Colony tells the stories of each home, the owners' connections with the island, and their interactions with one another.

While quite grand by today's standards, these homes were relatively simple in design, built to enhance rather than subdue the island's wild beauty. The cottages of Jekyll's "Millionaire's Row" were not nearly as lavish as their Newport counterparts, but typified Victorian resort architecture from New England to Florida, ranging from Queen Anne to shingle to Spanish and Mediterranean styles.

After the Jekyll Island Club disbanded following World War II, the state of Georgia acquired the island to ensure its conservation. Once threatened by years of neglect and disrepair, the elegant clubhouse has been converted to a hotel, and many of the gracious cottages have been restored to their original condition. The Jekyll Island Cottage Colony is a fascinating guide to a unique treasure of architectural history, as well as a personal look at golden days gone by.

From the Back Cover

During the Gilded Age, Jekyll Island, Georgia, was one of the most exclusive resort destinations in the United States. Owned by the most elite and inaccessible social club in America, a group whose members included Rockefellers, Pulitzers, Vanderbilts, Goulds, and Morgans, this quiet refuge in the Golden Isles was the perfect winter getaway for the wealthy new industrial class of the snowbound North. In this new book, June Hall McCash focuses on the social club's members and the "cottages" they built near the clubhouse between 1888 and 1928. Illustrated with hundreds of never-before-published photographs from private family collections, The Jekyll Island Cottage Colony tells the stories of each home, the owners' connections with the island, and the residents' interactions with one another.

Review Quotes

Incorporating personal recollections, accounts from journals and correspondence, and never-before-published family photos, McCash's highly satisfying piece of work will undoubtedly appeal to archivists, architects, and anyone curious about how the nation's earliest generation of millionaires built--and monopolized--their own paradise on earth.-- "Antioch Review"

McCash deserved high praise for her engaging portraits of the club members and for her deft touch for illustrations. . . . She is to be commended for breathing life once more into the Jekyll Island Cottage Colony.-- "Georgia Historical Quarterly"

A beautiful new book.

--Atlanta Journal-Constitution

An exceptionally perceptive look at how the rich really lived, back when they had genuinely private lives. Best of all, it is a first-rate guidebook.

--Islands Magazine

About the Author

JUNE HALL McCASH is the author, coauthor, and/or editor of thirteen books, including The Jekyll Island Club (Georgia). She is also a professor emerita at Middle Tennessee State University.