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.
Villa Marianna, designed by Danish architect and painter Mogens Tvede for Frank Miller Gould, grandson of railroad tycoon Jay Gould, was inspired by Spanish architecture and features courtyards, a formal garden, a fountain, and a tower. Built on Jekyll Island, where Gould spent his youth, the home later served as the headquarters for the Jekyll Island State Park Authority from 1950 to 1995. It is now an event venue.
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.
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.
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.
