Category Archives: -Georgia

-Georgia, Churches and Temples, National Register of Historic Places

Faith Chapel of Jekyll Island, Georgia

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Faith Chapel was constructed in 1904 for the exclusive Jekyll Island Club members. The Shingle Style church was built for interdenominational use, replacing Union Chapel, which was moved to the area where the Black employees lived at the Jekyll Island Club. The Jeykll Island Club was later purchased by the State of Georgia and opened to the public.

The chapel is known for its stained glass windows. The Stickney Memorial Window was created by noted stained glass designers, Maitland Armstrong and Helen Armstrong, and dedicated in 1905. It was installed in the memory of Joseph Stickney, a founding member of the Jekyll Island Club.

The second window, known as the Bourne Memorial Window, was crafted by renowned stained glass artist Louis Comfort Tiffany. Tiffany visited Jekyll Island multiple times, and the Jekyll Island Club members commissioned him to create this window in memory of Frederick Bourne, the Club’s former president who passed away in 1919. It depicts, “David Set Singers Before the Lord.” The window was installed in 1921 and underwent complete restoration in 2021.

Animal grotesques accompany the beauty of the stained glass windows. There are six inside the chapel. On the outside of the building, rain spouts are gargoyles inspired by the ones at Notre Dame Cathedral.

-Georgia, Hotels and Motels, Houses, National Register of Historic Places

Cherokee Cottage of Jekyll Island, Georgia

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Built in 1904 for Dr. George Frederick Shrady (the former physician for General Ulysses S. Grant) and his wife Hester, this 20-room Italian Renaissance-style cottage was later purchased in 1925 by Walter B. James, the President of the Jekyll Island Club, who named it “Cherokee.” The house is also known as the Shrady-James House. Renovated in 2001, it now serves as a hotel.

Image courtesy of the Digital Library of Georgia
-Georgia, Houses

The Home of Architect Cormac McGarvey-Brunswick, Georgia

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Cormac McGarvey Sr. (1902–1991) was a modern architect whose work built upon the architectural identity of Glynn County, Georgia. Born in Brunswick, McGarvey studied in Paris and worked in New York before returning to Georgia. Frank Lloyd Wright greatly influenced his work.

McGarvey played a role in designing many of Jekyll Island’s mid-century modern homes. These residences, built between the 1950s and 1970s, starkly contrasted the ornate Gilded Age mansions that Jekyll Island was known for. His designs featured flat roofs, concrete breezeblocks, expansive glass windows, and an integration into the natural surroundings.

Built in 1957, his home is located near the FJ Torras Causeway on Lanier Boulevard, and it illustrates the features his designs were known for.

-Georgia, Black History, Churches and Temples, National Register of Historic Places

St. Athanasius’ Episcopal Church of Brunswick, Georgia

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St. Athanasius’ Episcopal Church of Brunswick, Georgia, began in 1883 when two women from St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Brunswick, Mary King Troupe and Louise Nightingale, started a Sunday School for the Black community. By 1885, the mission had grown, and St. Athanasius’ Episcopal Church was officially organized, named after Athanasius of Alexandria, a prominent African saint.

The current church building replaced the original wooden church, which was destroyed by a storm in 1896. The Gothic-Revival influenced church is made of tabby and is one of the few remaining tabby structures from the 19th century still standing in Brunswick. In 1946, the tabby was covered in stucco.

A major renovation in 2000 included the installation of stained glass memorial panels, featuring three panels that honor Civil Rights Movement leaders.

-Georgia, Churches and Temples

Temple Beth Tefilloh of Brunswick, Georgia

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Temple Beth Tefilloh was established in 1886 by 21 local families. Jewish architect Alfred S. Eichberg, the architect for the Brunswick City Hall, designed the temple, which was dedicated on November 7, 1890. It is one of the few remaining Moorish-influenced temples in the South. The building has been in continuous use since its opening. The stained glass windows are original to the construction.

This stained glass window features the Ten Commandments.
The eternal light continues to burn.
-Georgia, Schools

Glynn Academy of Brunswick, Georgia

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Glynn Academy, founded on February 1, 1788, is the second oldest high school in Georgia and the fifth oldest in the U.S. Originally serving all grade levels, its first recorded graduating class in 1888 included four girls and two boys. The school’s roots trace back to Georgia’s 1777 constitution, which envisioned a public education system.

The original Glynn Academy building, now called Alumni Hall, was built in 1840 on Hillsborough Square and is the oldest wooden schoolhouse in Georgia. It is adjacent to the still-active Glynn Academy. It served as Brunswick’s only public school building for over 50 years and also hosted Superior Court sessions after being moved to Sterling in 1915, where it served as a school for Glynn County’s Black schoolchildren. It was returned to its original site in 2008. Today, it is the only surviving antebellum structure in Glynn County and the second-oldest wooden schoolhouse in the nation.

Article and image from the July 28, 2008 issue of The Islander