The Oak Boarding House was opened in 1904 by Mrs. A. F. Turner. Built initially as a Craftsman-style home, the second-floor porch and Victorian elements were added in the last twenty years. It sits across the street from the Old Glynn County Courthouse. It is now occupied by a law firm.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Founded in 1866 by freedmen and women on Hofwyl-Broadfield Plantation as Broadfield Baptist Church. The structure was built in the 1870s and was redesigned when the congregation moved to its current location in 1885. At the time of the move, the congregation changed its name to Needwood Baptist Church. The one-room school was built in 1907 and used until the state of Georgia began school consolidation in the 1950s.
It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1998.
