Reynolds Mansion is located on the southern part of Sapelo Island. Its origins trace back to the early 1800s, when Thomas Spalding, a prominent planter and politician, established a plantation on Sapelo Island. Using enslaved labor, Spalding introduced sugarcane cultivation to Georgia. The mansion was designed by Roswell King and constructed using tabby, a mixture of lime, sand, and oyster shells, a common building material in the Southern coastal States.
In 1912, Howard E. Coffin, an automobile magnate, acquired the island and undertook significant renovations of the Spalding estate, which had fallen into disrepair after the Civil War. The mansion was essentially completely rebuilt. Architect Albert Kahn designed the reconstruction.
The estate changed hands again in 1934 when tobacco heir Richard J. Reynolds Jr. purchased it. Reynolds further expanded the mansion and used it as a private residence and a venue for entertaining guests, including notable figures such as Presidents Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover.
Prominent Atlanta architect Phillip Trammell Shutze was responsible for the home’s redesign and expansion. Shutze engaged noted painter Athos Menaboni to paint murals throughout the home. Menaboni was an Italian American artist who came to the United States after World War I. The artist was known for his bird paintings, but his work also expanded into other areas. He designed the murals of the Reynolds Mansion’s ground-floor game room, sunroom, and top-floor banquet hall, known as the Circus Room. Photos are below.
